The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-06-14
!, DEFEATING DEATH.

you can"
"Good bye. Nellie, dear, and don't
forget me when I am away"
Their hands warmly pressed each
other as their lips would have done
had not Others been near. Then they
separated. Nellie Browning watched
the tall, strong form OF John King TN.
til it was lost in the high grass Of the
prairie and with a sigh returned to
duty. L.
Never before had the little isolated
way station seemed SO dull, and the
tick OF the telegraph instrument so
monotonous. There was literally
nothing for her to do after the GUS
tomary ''putting things to rights"
No train would pass for hours, mes
sages seldom troubled her, she had ex-
hausted her little stock of reading.
What could she do to make the hours
pass less YEARLY?
She rested her head upon the key
board and gave herself to pleasant
waking dreams, to mentally following
her lover and %murmuring aloud of the
pictures thought photographed in her
heart.
1T will take John all day to in
spect the line to the wooden island in
the middle of The prairie, and he will
have to sleep there alone in the cabin.
I wonder if he will think of me all the
time, as I will OF him?"
She endeavored to fix her attention
upon other things. But do what she
would her thoughts wandered back to
her lover, the lack of comfort he
would experience, and the happy day
when she would have the right to be
eve by his side.
As if the no urs become leaden foot
ed they crept along. At noon she
listlessly ate the lunch she had
brought from her farm home; then
she wished night would hurry along.
Darkness did come after long and
weary waiting, hel hours of duty had
ended and she was preparing to leave
when the station was called and she
was told in clicking whispers that on
account of an extra that was wild
eating she would have to remain un-
til midnight.
With the reverse of a pleast express
sion upon her face and an almost tle-
faint tossing back of her auburn curls
she sat down again. The workmen
about the station went home and left
her alone; the frogs croaked mourn-
fully from a neighboring slough and
the wires made weird music as the
brisk night wind played upon them.
But the experience was not new to
her; there vas nothing to fear and her
father would come for her when the
night was done.
Eight, nine, ten passed, and the
night was becoming painful. Some
thing must be done. Size failed to re-
member being so much oppressed by
the lack of society and wondered how
Robinson Crusoe could have existed
before his man Friday. Then she
thought of a female friend who was
operator at the next westward sta
tion, and, nearly dying for some one
to talk to, summoned "Sterling."
There was no reply. Try a she
would directly she could get none, but
utilizing a circuit she was answered,
and asked:
"What is the matter with the main
line?"
"Matter enough" was answered,
and her trained a instantly told
her the touch was not OF a delicately
fingered girl, but q heevy-handed man.
1.-THE prairie is all on fire between
here and the Buffalo Heart Grove;
that is beginning to burn, and when
the flames sweep round on your side
you'll have to look sharp if they don't
catch you mapping, my pretty daisy"
At another time she would have
closed the key with an angry snap at
the impudent familiarity. Now there
was room in her brain for only one
maddening thought.
John King was sleeping in the cabin
in the grove, would he be surrounded
by fire, be stifed by smoke, be burned
to death!
"Prairie round Buffalo Heart Grove
a sea of flame, line down, bridges over
culverts probably burned. Stop all
trains at X" she managed to flash
back over the wire.
Then she dashed out where all
should have been darkness but was
not. For miles earth and sky were
illuminated, the roaring of the flames
could be distinctly heard, their fu.
rious leaping distinctly traced.
their speed swifter than the
greyhound and their force resistless
as a cyclone. Nothing to her now
was duty, nothing that it wanted
two hours of midnight. nothing that
many lives might hang upon her re-
manning at her post. One life she
knew was in danger, and that was to
her more than all others in the world.
With flying feet, with a desperate
resolve forming in her brain, she
FASTENED homeward, but did not en-
ter the house-dared: not for tear Of
the thwarting of her purpose. As she
passed the window she saw her old
father nodding in his chair, and a
satisfied smile parted on her lips.
For all the hidden wealth of mount
ain and canyon she would not have
him waken.
Well she knew the swiftest and most
untiring horse in the stable. That it
was one she had never ridden, a
young, fiery, valuable blue-blooded
stallion, she never gave q thought.
Speed and courage were the things
now to be desired, and all other con-
siderations, even her W safety,
were dwarfed into nothingness by