Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-08-30
IN THE NICK OF TIME.

Miss Lily Somers. night telegraph
operator at the Floodwood station, sat
before her table, on which the telegraph
instrument clicked busily, thoughtful
expression upon her face.
A face whose expression was it's
charm, that never could be called pretty,
but that, nevertheless, suggested pos
sibi!ity-only a possibility-of being
handsome. For there is vast differ
ence between pretty and handsome.
Pretty people seldom know very much;
but to be handsome, aperson must have
brains; an inner as we'll as an outer
beauty.
Floodwood was a forlornly desolate
spot. and one where any woman, except
Lilly, would have boon afraid to come,
much less to stay alone all night with
nothing but the wind sadly signing
through the wires overhead and the
shrill shrielSs of tho wild cats away up
on the mountain side to keep her COM
pany through her nightly vigils. But
to her there was something fascinating
III the very desolation of the place.
From early childhood she had been
accustomed to commune with nature in
her widest scenes, and played and
wandered at will in the mountain glens
and canons. With no foolish old woman
or silly nurse girl to brighten her child
ish senses with stories of hideous ghosts
and monstrous COLLINS, she had grown
to womanhood naturally brave and fear
less. In truth she did not yet under
stand the meaning Of the word fear.
Her office was nothing more than a
roughly built sbanty, seven or eight
feet square, with small window i'll each
end, and one in the door which faced
the railroad track. 1t had been hur-
rled!y put together with green lumber
While the road was in course of
construction, with the intention
of only using il temporarily
until a better one could be built,
but as usual in such cases, it done duty
Tor its original purpose ever since.
The rough, implanted boards were
no" badly warped and shrunken by
long exposure to the clements, and in
many places large knots had fallen COM
pletely cut.
No doubt, in the winter time, the
bleak mountain wind cheerily whistled
through these many apertures, and while
one side of the unhappy operator was
being nicely Drowned like piece of
toast by the red-hot stove, the other
side would be refrigerated like frozen
rabbit.
ii was about / o'clock in the morning
WHEN Lily received al order from the
train dispatcher which read as follows
10 OPERATOR. FLooDwooD: Hold No. 21
until NO. - arrives i. X. c."
On receipt Of this order she imme-
diatcl,,' displayed the red signal light,
which is furnished all telegraph sta
tons ior this purpose. in conspicuous
place, in plain sight of passing trains,
and also where it could be seen from
the office window.
The necessity for this order and DO
sitlon Of the two trains, briefly stated,
We're as follows:
No % had arrived at Silver Greek, ten
miles west Of Floodwood, few minutes
after No. 81 had passed Redwood,
which was thirteen miles east of Flood
wood. AS No. % was late and could go
no further on the schedule, according
to the rules of the road, they would be
compelled to lay at Silver Greek until
No. Fl arrived there, unless they could
get orders by telegraph to meet them at
some other station. Floodwood being
the only intervening telegraph station
between the two trains, the dispatcher
gave the above order to that station.
and as soon as it was properly acknowl-
edged by Lily he sent another order to
No. % at Silver Creek, which read in
this manner:
ITO CONDUCTOR AND ENGINEER No. %:
Meet No. q at Floodwood. Approach care
fully. EXC"
The intelligent reader will readily
understand that by means of these Or
ders the two trains would meet each
other at Floodwood in perfect safety,
Notwithstanding that one of them knew
nothing of the arrangement.
To explain. If No. 81 should arrive
first, they would be stopped bv the red
light, which showed that there were or
ders for them at this station. The con-
ductor and engineer would Immediately
proceed to the telegraph Office. where