The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-10-20

then remembered what / was there for
and ran for the box again. 1 reached
it in a few minutes, but TO my surprise
everything was dark, and there was q
policeman leaning up against it.
&C What was the alarm for2' 1 gasp
ed, all out of breath.
"' What alarm2' said he, looking at
me disdainfully.
"'The alarm that was rung in from
this box a little while ago.
"There amt been no alarm rung In
from this box said he.
81 looked at him in a dazed sort Of
way. Il know BETTER 1 said. sI've
just come from the World office, and it
wal rung in there not fifteen minutes
ago.
"'Well, young f%eller,' he said, turn
ing away, Il 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 I could get out OF him.
1t didn't seem 80 strange to me then,
for my mind was still in a whirl from
the fright 1 had had, and / think moth
ing would have surprised me much, 30
after he'd gone 1 wandered round try
ing to locate the fire, and, finding moth
ing, gave it up and went back to the
office. 1 went in and stood by the city
editors desk without speaking. In a
minute he looked up.
Well,' he said, { how was the fire?'
&c 1t didn't amount to anything l
answered. 'What box did you make
it?'
what box? Why, fifty-two of
course. Why do you ask?'
"'Oh, nothing / answered.; l
thought perhaps l might have made a
mistake
"Then L went out into the local
room, and as soo as 1 got inside the
door Pemberton called across to me.
"'How was box fifty-two?' he said.
"'Then you made it ffty-two, did
your" L asked.
"' Sure said he, didn't you?'
"By this time l had pretty we'll
gotten ove my fright and was able to
think clearly again, and 1 couldn't un-
derstand it at ali. 1t was perfectly
certain that that alarm had been rung
in our office; we had all three heard
it; but it vas also perfectly certain
that it had not been rung from the
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 mat
ter for a long time while before 1 went
to sleep that night, and I've puzzled
over it much since then, but I've
never come across a logical explana-
ton of it. The only thing that ever
looked like a solution was something
that happened next day. 1 was in the
Office again in the afternoon, and 1
saw a couple of the telegraph COM
papy's men coming down from the
roof, where they'd been fixing wires.
l thought 1 might get some clew from
them, and when 1 asked them what
they'd been working on 1 found that
one of the company's wires had fallen
in the night and dropped across our
fire alarm wires. I 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 quizzi-
cally, with n eye shut.
"Well,' he said, slowly, 'she
grounded on a trolley wire on Belden
btIcCt III q low HluuICc, dhu II ohO "
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 hav-
ing rung in a good clear alarm would
have been,' he said, sp%eculatively,
'about one in a hundred thousand
"When I told Kitty about how I'd
been called to her, just when she
needed me 80 desperately, she was
deeply touched.
"Don't let's wonder about it, dear,
or try TO find out what in means,' she
said, slowly and thoughtfully, laying
her cheek against mine. There are
some things which we can't under
stand and which it's not meant that
we should understand. 1t was some
thing more powerful and mysterious
than electricity that called you to me,
dear, 80 let's leave it that way and
take it as a sign that you were meant
to watch over me, and that you'll al
ways be near when / want YOU'D
The White Elephant.