Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09

roughly boarded shell
The Only Girl at Over ter and with rapid
look. fingers clicked the key
of telegraphic instrument. There was
perfect poise of quiet self-possession which
would have been very impressive dignity
in an older and bigger person, and which,
although here limited by 18 years and 100
pounds, still made demand for respectful
treatment. Therefore the men when in her
presence never felt like calling her any
thing else than "Miss Warriner" If she
had been less like a stately damsel in min
iature, and more like such child as she
was in size only; if her employment had
been something not so near to science as
that Of telegraphy, and not SO far off from
juvenile simplicity; if her brown hair had
been loosely curled, instead Of closely
coiled, and if her skirts had stopped at her
ankles. instead of reaching to her feet, then
she might have been nieknamed MARY
Mite" within her own hearing, as she was
beyond it by those who described her small
ness in sobriquet. There may have been
a variance of opinion among those dwellers
at Overlook who had made any estimate of
her composure, but ifthere was one who be-
lieved that she merely assumed a reserve of
manner, because she was among 200 men,
he had not yet tried his chances of excep-
tional acquaintance.
Overlook was crude and temporary. The
inhabitants were making a roadbed for q
new railway, at spot where the job was
extraordinary, requiring an uncommonly
Law 0f krai Xn s,,% he
work. Those who were mental laborers in
the remarkable feat of engineering, or we're
at least bosses of the physical toll, were the
ones who had errands at the telegraphic
shed, and for whom Mary sent and received
messages over the wires. The isolated
colony of workers was 100 miles deep in a
wilderness of mountain and forest; but not
as many seconds distant, measured by the
time necessary for electrical communica-
ton, from the construction company's head
quarters in great city.
"Must YOU wait for an answer" Mary
said, as she clicked the last word of
message. ''It's an hour since your first tele-
gram went, and they seem in no hurry to
reply"
Polite indifference, and nothing else, was
in her clear, gentle voice. There was neither
boldness nor shyness in the eyes that opened
wide and blue, as she lifted them from the
paper to the man whom she questioned.
There was no more of a smile than of pout
on the mouth that worded the inquiry. She
did not indicate the faintest interest as to
whether he went or stayed, although she did
suggest that he might as we'll go.
"I'd rather lounge here, if you don't
mind" was Gerald Heath's answer.
Here the alertness of the placid girl was
family shown by quick glance, but it was
so furtive that the subject OF her wariness
did not know his face was being scrutinized;
and she was quickly convinced that she was
not the cause of his remaining, for he said:
''I'll tell you why I'm anxious about the
telegram, and in hurry to get it."
Gerald Heath had been lazily leaning
against the makeshift desk of the tele-
grapher, as he waited, and for pastime had
whitfield the smooth birch sapling that
formed its outer edge. He had chipped and
shaved, after the manner of those to whom
a sharp pocket knife and piece of wood
provide solace. There had been no con-
yersation, except a few words concerning
the messages. But now he heightened him
selfto six feet by standing erect, and took on
the outlines of a magnificent physique.
His proportions had not been realized be-
fore by the girl at the other side of the
counter. She comprehended, too, that if
his somewhat unkempt condition were
changed to one which included a face
cleaned of stubble beard, suit of modish
clothes to replace the halfworn corduroys,
and the shine of silk hat and polished
boots at his now dusty extremities, he would
become young gentleman whose disregard
might be an appreciable slight That was
the conclusions which she reached without
any visible sign that her careless eyes were
conveying any sort of impression to her
mind. AS it was, he looked an unusually
burly specimen of the men to whom isola-
ton from city lite had impaired an aspect of
barbarians. Before he had uttered another
word she realized that he was wholly en-
crossed in the matter of his kilograms, and
had no thought of the individuality of the
listener. Not only was she not the thing
that made him wait, but she might as we'll
have been old. ugly, or man, If only she
had ears to hear.
1t was a summer afternoon, and the clear,
balmy weather was seasonable. The re-
moval of protective canvas had lett the
structure an open shed, over the front of
which hung the boughs of the two trees
against whose massive trunks it leaned.
Gerald Heath reached up with both hands,
and held the foliage aside.
"Do you get an unobstructed view?" he
said. "Now, I've helped lay out railroads
through many place where it was a shame !
to let trains go faster than a mile a day.
I've surveyed routes that ought to provide
special trains for passengers with eyes in
their heads-trains with speed graduated
between go miles an hour and 60 hours
mile. 1t is an outrage on nature and art
that travellers should ever be whisked past
Overlook without good chance to see what
we're looking at. That's why wrote to
the President of the company, a month ago,
telling him how slight deviation from the
surveyed line would enable passengers to
get what's in our view now. He asked how
much the line would be heightened by my
plan. A hundred yards. answered. And
/ submitted map. showing how the tracks,
after coming out from the tunnel, might
make a small detour to this very spot, in
stead of going behind a mass of rocks that
will completely hide this -" and COM
prehensiye gesture of one arm followed his
sweep of vision.
Places that get their names on impulse
are apt TO have appropriate ones. Camps of
railway makers in a hitherto unbroken
country are not often miscalled. An ensu-
ing town on the same site may be unmean-
ingly named as a permanency, but the in
spirations that afford transient nomencla-
ture are usually descriptive 1t was so in
the case OF Overlook. The railway tun-
neled the mountain, and emerged at height
Of 1000 feet above wide valley. Mary
- 4