The St. Johns herald., 1898-05-14
rzA ANE CREEK was a railroad


 vita a sandy road crooking out from the trees on one side and into the trees
 ,n the other. There were only two or three houses, little general store with porch like the visor of a military cap, and schoolhouse, all arranged in a scraggy row along the railroad track. The dusty red depot was an oasis in the midst of a finder desert, with a great many telegraph wires singing overhead.
 A dozen trains whirled through Kane Creek every day with only a shriek of greeting and a whipping wake of fine sand. Only two of them paid the slight est attention to the girl in a blue ging- ham dress who stood in the little ob- servation window. One of them was the way freight, which stopped at Kane every time it came along while the conductor handed the girl a bundle of yellow papers and received another like 1t in return. The other was the night express, westward bound, from St. Paul, and running at forty miles an hour. It was a splendid train-ten cars, with the finest engine on the road, big No. COG. AS its glaring eye flashed around the bend in the direction of Mercer the girl in the gingham dress often thought of the great train as a powerful and ferocious beast snorting and roaring westward on a race with the sun, and she knew the hand that trained 1t. When the train was a mile away there were always two blasts of the whistle. Every one in Kane thought they meant simply "Wake up, look Out! for that is what all locomo- tiVes say at every crossing, but the girl In the gingham dress heard Hello. Polly" and darted out on the platform and waved her handkerchief. AS the great train thundered nearer a hand was thrust from the engineers win dow, and, although it was usually dark she could see the fiutter of something white, and oftentimes as the engine darted past the station she heard the blurred sound of a voice and caught a glimpse of grimy face and a blue jean jacket, and then she went back to her place in the little station with a sigh of cOntentment.
 For it was a moment of great joy to Polly Marshall when her fathers en- zine went through. Polly was the sta ton agent at Kane Creek. Any one could have told that woman presided In the little depot, for was there not al ways a bouquet in the window and dainty pictures surrounding the grimy time tables on the walls and a kitten curling upon the doorstep? At IT Polly has gone in as assistant to learn teleg- raphy, and when Clark, the agent, was called to Mercer the company had left the independent girl in charge. She and her father lived in one of the wooden houses stones throw back from the depot. and since Polly's moth CT died they had been everything to each other.
 Engineer Marshall was a big. silent man, and his companions. some of them, thought him gruff and ill-tem- pered. but to Polly he was always as tender as a kitten. Often when she was little girl he took her with him
 
 sat on his black leacther seat at the cab window, clinglng on with both hands. he explained to her how the big black creature under them was started and stopped; what this brass crank was for, and how, when the engine squeaked here or squaeked there, a lit tie oil was needed in this cup or in that CT evice. and Polly had learned to know an engine as well as she knew the neat little pantry In the house at home. In- deed. she had more than once managed the levers and throttle although it was very heavy work for a girl to do.
 It was one night late in the fall that Folly Marshall need Of aD bar Knowledge of engines. She was sittinq at her desk in the little observation window, shaded light throwing ifs rays down on her telegraph inStru- ments and the sounding key clicking Sleepily. Suddenly she was startled by the call of her number. Instantly her fingers sought the keys, and she gave the answer that signified that she was all attention.
 Look out for -" clicked the sound CT, and then it suddenly ceased, and try as she would Polly could get no further communication from the sta 1 tion next to the eastward. What could the trouble be? Polly sprang to her !, feet, remembering that the night ex- | press of which her father was the en- gineer was the next train cue. Could ! anything be the matter? She ran out on the dark platform to see that her | lights were all in place and that the ! switches were properly set, so that the express would slip past the station ! without an accident. Then she went i back and called up Mercer.
 Cant you get Pinckney?" she asked. Pinckney was the station which had sent her the warning dispatch so mys- terious interrupted. She knew the ope- rator at Pinckney well. Every night he told her of the approach of her ratn- CTS train and whether or not 1t had eft his station on time.
 'Pinckney quiet. Can't get answer" was the report of the wires. Whats the trouble?'
 Folly answered as we'll as she could. md Mercer made another attempt to arouse Pinckney.
 Her fathers train was now due. It