The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1888-08-22
A SOLITARY PASSENGER.

Inc lt-1u tfaln lFOUl W uiie Itdh wis
late that snowy February night. 1t new
er was what one would call painfully
prompt train, but to-nightit was full fifty
minutes behind its usual time, and the
telegraph operator had nearly fallen
asleep behind the pane of ground glass
over which the word tickets was in
scribed in half cirle, and toward which a
most inartiscally fore-shortened hand was
depicted as extending a gilt finger for
the enlightenment of the general pub
lie.
Not that the Big Pine telegraph office
was ordinarily open at so late an hour as
this. Seven O'Clock was the usual period
of closing. Nor had Eunice Barlow any
official right to the tall wooden stool be-
hind the semicircular gilt legend referr-
ing to Tickets" Ina manner she had
had greatness thrust upon her. Old Mr..
Pettyclove, who represented the majesty
of the railway company in this partieu-
lar spot, had gone nome in the early
dusk with raging facial neuralgia, and
in common humanity Eunice could not
have refused temporarily to assume his
position with its duties.
at will only be another hour of work"
she told herself, cheerfully, as she put an
additional log of frost-fringed wood into
the little air-tight stove. "When the
1850 has passed can shut up the place
and 90 home. There are only two night
freights, and the conductors on both of
them have keys to the freight house"
But in the course of these sanguine
meditations Eunice had neglected to take
into account the driving snow-storm and
the consequent "block" along the rails;
and she was beginning TO glance rather
anxiously at the unmeaning dial of the
wooden clock on the pine shelf above
her head, for she would have TO walk
nearly half mile through the lonely
wooded road ere she could reach her
home, after the station was closed for
the night, and she had plump, tiniid
little mother sitting beside the fire, who
was sure to imagine all sorts of possible
and impossible horrors if Eunice chanc-
ed to be few minutes behind the regu-
lation time of arriving at the doorstep.
81 wish, Miss Barlow mused, shat I
had thought to ask Mr.. Pettyclove to
send his boy Zenas over to tell mother
that was likely to be detained little.
Bnt there the train can't be long now"
Outside the wind howled like an infu-
rated demon in the worst possible of
tempers. The tops of the pine trees kept
up constant moaning, like the waves of
some black-green sea. Within, the clock
licked Justify on, the logs of wood crack
led and sputtered in the stove, and Eu-
nice Barlow yawned over her paper COW
cred Ivanhoe, with growing inditfer-
ence TO the fate alike of the fair-haired
Rowena and Rebecca the beautiful.
Suddenly the silence was broken by
the tiniest sound, like the throbbing of
some small silver heart. Eunice jumped
up, insiinctively obedient to the call of
her autocrat, the telegraph.
"A messagep she thought. "And at
this time of night. Well, wonders will
never cease.
A message it was; to Peter Pettyclove,
station agent at Big Pine station.
"Defalcation in Home Bank Detain
passenger on train 21. Small, dark, and
wearing fur-trimmed coat. Keep in Gus
tody until further notice.
II. Y. GARTER.
Chief of Police at White Peak"
Almast before she had deciphered
these words, Ennice Barlow telegraphed
back, "All right" and once more the
small silver heart lefl off its tumultuous
throbbing And not until then did the
telegraph operator realize what very
peculiar position she was in. All alone
at Big Pine station, and officially author
lied, in right of her substitution, to arrest
bank defalcator on the spot
Even while she pondered on this unex-
pected state of things there was curious
thrill and trembie of the floor under her
feet; a shrill steam whistle rising above
the sustained roar of the tempest The
le.50, officially known as No. 81, was
swinging around the curve.
In an instant Eunice Barlow was out
in the deep snow on the rude board plat
form with the lighted lantern in her
hand. The conductor on the train was
not at all surprised to see her there. He
knew that Peter Pettycloye was old and
feeble, and spirited young female tele-
graph operator is rated at her full value
in the Big Pine section. She tried TO sig
nal to him that she wanted to speak TO
him, but the binding snow drove its
shroud like sheets between them. He
smiled and nodded to her in an aggra-