Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-11-05

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never have realized otherwise, what
she was to me. For L knew then
that If / could not have reached her
in time there would have been nothing
in life worth having for me, and that
L should not have tried to escape the
death which was to be hers.
'She gathered from my discon.
nected talk that ] was on duty at a
fire, and she would not hear Of my
leaving my post to go with her. 1t
was only few steps to her car, and
so in few moments / was alone again,
and she was on her way home. Only
before sue got on the car she put her
hand in mine and looked up into my
eyes.
Don't think that I'm not thank.
full, DEAR she said, nor that don't
feel what you've done. Only 1 can't
tell you nowhere
"I st irted back for the Office and
then remembered what l was there
for and ran for the box again.
reached it in few minutes, but to my
surprise everything was dark, and
there was policeman leaning up
against it.
" What was the alarm for?' I
gasped, all out Of breath.
" What alarm?' said he, looking at
me disdainfully.
" The alarm that was rulg in from
this box little while ago.
There amt been no alarm rung
in from this box, said he.
II looked at him in dazed sort of
way. Il know better, / said. I've
just come from the World Office, and
it was rung in there not 10 minutes
ago.
We'll, young Teller, he said, turn
ing away, I guess you'd better go
back to the World Office and get your
breath. There amt been no alarm
rung in from this box tonight
"That was all could get out OF
him. 1t didn't seem so strange to me
then, for my mind was still in whirl
from the fright I had had, and think
nothing would have surprised me
much, so after he'd gone 1 wandered
round trying to locate the fire and,
finding nothing, gave it up and went
back to the office. l went in and
stood by the city editors desk without
speaking. In minute he looked up.
Well, he said, how was the fire?'
1T didn't amount to anything /
answered. What box did you make
it?'
"'What box? Why, ffty-two of
course. Why do you ask?'
'Oh, nothing l answered; II
thought perhaps might have made a
mistake
Then I went out into the local
room, and as soon as l got inside the
door Pemberton called across to me.
How was box fifty-two?' he said.
Then you made it fifty-two, did
you?' / asked.
Sure, said he, didn't you?'
''By this time l had pretty well
gotten over my fright and was able to
think clearly again, and / couldn't un-
derstand it at ell 1t was perfectly
certain that tn It alarm had been rung
i'll our office; we had all three heard
it, but it was also perfectly certain
that it had not been rung from tho
box, and how else could the Taper
have sounded in the office? There
was something ghostly and creepy
about the whole thing that gave me a
queer feeling, | puzzled over the
matter for long while before / went
to sleep that night, and I've puzzled
over it much since then, but I've
never come across logical explana-
ton of it. The only thing that ever
looked like solution was something
that happened next day. / was in the
office again in the afternoon, and /
saw couple Of the telegraph COM
panys men coming down from the
roof, where they'd been fixing wires.
] thought l might get some clew from
them, aud when asked them what
they'd been working on / found that
one of the company's wires had fallen
in the night and dropped across our
fire alarm wires. told the lineman
about the alarm ringing in and asked |
him if his wire could have anything to |
do with it. He looked at me quiz |
zically, with one eye shut.
" Well he said, slowly, "she
grounded on q trolley wire on Belden
street for few minutes, and if she'd |
happened to take just the right charge
there at just the right time, and if |
she'd happened to strike your wires at
a place where the insulation was
broken, and if the wind had bounced |,
her about just right she might posi-
bly, have rung the Taper in some kind
of fashion, but the chances of her hay
ing rung in good clear alarm would
have BEEN he said, speculatively,
about one in a hundred thousand