The Louisiana populist., 1898-01-21


death which was to be hers.
''She gathered from my discon-
nected talk that 1 was on duty at
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 I was alone again,
and she was on her way home. Only
before she 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 l 4n't
tell you nowhere.
81 started back for the Office and
then remembered what I was there
for and ran for the box again. I
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 rung in from
this box little while ago.
" There amt been no alarm rung
in from this box,' said he.
81 looked at him in dazed sort of
way. Il know better. said. I've
jus come from the World Office, and
it.was rung in there not Is minutes
ago
" well, young feller, he said, turn
ing away, 4 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 1 could get out of
him. 1t didn't seem so strange to me
then, for my mind was still in a whirl
from the fright had had, and think
nothing would have surprised me
much, so after he'd gone I wandered
round trying to locate the fire and,
finding nothing, gave it up and went
back to the Office. I went in and
stood by the city editors desk without
speaking In minute he looked up.
" Well, he said, how was the freP'
1t didn't amount to anything, I
answered. What box did you make
it?'
what box? Why, ffty-two Of
course. Why do you ask?'
" oh, nothing I answered; II
thought perhaps I might have made
mistake
Then I went out into the local
room, and as soon as got inside the
door Pemberton called across to me.
" How was box fifty-two?' he said.
" Then you made it ffty-two, did
you?' | asked.
" Sure, said he, didn't you?'
"By this time I had pretty we'll
gotten over my fright and was able to
think clearly again, and 1 couldn't un.
derstand it at all. 1t was perfectly
certain that tn At alarm had been rune
in our office; we had all three heard
it; but it was also perfectly certain
that it had not been rung from the
box, and how else could the Taper
have sounded in the Officer There
was something ghostly and creepy
about the whole thing that gave me a
queer feeling. I puzzled over the
matter for long while Before I went
to sleep that night, and I've puzzled
over it much since then, but I've
never come across logical explana.
tion of it. The only thing that ever
looked like solution was something
that happened next day. 1 was in the
office again in the afternoon, and I
saw couple of the telegraph com.
panys men coming down from the
roof, where they'd been fixing wires.
thought [ might get some clew from
them, and when I asked them what
they'd been working on I 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 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
place where the insulation was
broken, and if the wind had bounced
her about just right she might possi-
bly, have rung the Taper in some kind
of fashion, but the chances of her hav-
ing rung in good clear alarm would
have been, he said, speculatively,
about one in hundred thousand.
"When l told Kitty about how I'd
been called to her, just when she
needed me so desperately, she was
deeply touched.
Don't let's wonder about it, dear,
or try to find out what it 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. It was some
thing mare nowerfnl and ,nye+or;o,,.