Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-07
CHAPTER XIV.

murmured brokenly out of somewhere to
some one: You're connected now-go
ahead"
Then came a grating rasp and drone, a
metallic click or two, and out of the still
ness there f1oated in to his waiting ear the
space-f1ltered music of an anxious Hello
fute-like, mellow, far away.
1t seemed to him there, under the stress
Of his passing mood that an incorporeal
presence had whispered the word to him.
Suddenly, for the first time in his life, the
miracle OF 1t all came home to him, the mys-
terry and magic Of that tenuous instrument,
which could guide, and treasure. and carry
in to him through the night the very tone
and timber of that one familiar voice, fash
ing It so many miles through star-hung for
est and hill and valley, threading it on
through sleeping towns and turbulent cities,
winging it through wind and water uner-
ringly home to his waiting ear.
Hello!' the anxious contralto was ask
ing again.
"Hello?" cried Durkin, pent in the little
bald speaking-closet, yet his face illumi-
1aa1e,1, with ~, wonderful one. new alertness
A ripple of relieved laughter ebbed out Of
the wire.
"Oh, Jim," sounded the far-away voice in
his ear, sighingly. TT seems so good!'
Where are your"
''In Washington, at the Arlington Office
He chuckled little, as though the accom-
pltshment of the miracle. the humiliation of
so many miles of space, was a matter of
his own personal triumph.
Here we're talking together through
three hundred miles Of midnight!' he boast
ed to her.
Yes. I know; but wish it wasn't so far!
Did you recognize my voice there?"
I'D know that voice in-in hell!' he an
swered, with a sudden grim but inadequate
earnestness. He had hoped to say some
thing fitting and fine, but, as always seemed
n i'm In ic iy,o-
agination foundered in the turbulence of
his emotions.
you may have to some day, my poor
Orpheus!" she was laughing back at him.
But the allusion was lost on Durkin, and
he cut in with a curt, Whats happened?
Il want to come home! 1t must have
been a good night for 'phoning, he felt. as
he heard those five cogent words and an
inconsequential little glow suffused him.
Not at ohm of their soft usefulness, not
coulomb of their quiet significance, had
leaked away through all their hundreds of
miles of midnight travel 1t almost seemed
that he could feel the intimate warmth of
her arms across the million peopled cities
that separated them; and he projected him
self. in fancy. to the heart of the far-off
turbulence where she stood There, 1t
seemed to him, she radiated warmth and
color and meaning to the barren wastes Of
life. a glowing and living ember in all the
dead ashes of unconcern And again 1t
flashed through him, as the wistful cadence
of her voice died down on the wire, that
she was all that he had in life, and that
with her, thereafter, he must rise or sink
II want to come home" she was repeat
ing dolefully
you've got to come, and come quickw
what was that?''
II say, risk it and come" he called back
to her. Something has happenedr'
Something happened? Not bad news is
it?"
"No-but it will open your eyes, when you
hear it!'
Everything at my end has been done.
you mean it came out all right?"
mot quite all right, but think it will do.
Is it safe for me to tell you something's"
Yes, anything in reason, I guess
"Curry's men in New Orleans are work.
ing against him!'
and his men are trying to break Curry, and
every blessed one of them!' md Durkin
gave vent to triumphant chuck1e, deep
down in his throat.
Where did you find this out?" the upper
turbed and far-away contralto was demand
ing.
You could never guess"
Talk faster, or this telephoning will
break u.s." she warned him.
"Oh, I don't care-it's worth the money"
"Hello-Hello! Oh, all right. Go on"
You heard about the fire in the terminal
room of the Postal Union? Novel;, some
dago with a torch got little too careless
d
splicer's pot of paraftin down ON lower
Broadway, not much more than hundred
yards from Wall street itself. Then the
flames caught on the burlap and the in
sulating grease and stuff round the ca bleS-
can you hear me?-There was the dickens
to pay, and in about ten minutes they looked
more like CARLOAD of old excelsior than
the business wires of a few thousand Of
fices!'
Yes, go on!'
"Well, it stopped nine thousand tele-
phones, and put over two hundred stock
tickers out of business and cut off nearly
five hundred of the Postal Union wires, and
left all lower New York without even fire.
alarm service. That's saying nothing of the
out-of-town wires. and the long distance
service-did you get all that?'
Perfectly
"Well, there's a lot more to tell but it
will keep-say till Thursday night. You
may be able to imagine just what it is, from
what I've told you; but listen: I think can
open your eyes, when you get here!' he re-
peated, slowly and Significantly.
"All right-even Great Western wire
might have ears, you known she warned
him.
quite so. but how about your Savannah
information? There's nothing new?"
Nothing. But you saw the newspaper
stories?"
1.-The Herald yesterday said the Secretary
of Agriculture had demanded from the Sa-
vannah cotton exchange the name of a
wire house that bulletined a government
CIop iOpoit I'LL ~ dASdu VI Tic
official release
Eyes, that's Dunlap & Co. They are fran
tic. They still declare there was no leak,
and are fighting it out with the department
here at Washington. In the meantime.
luckily for us, they are. of course, sending
out press statements saying it as all a
coincidence between their firms private
crop estimate and the actual government
report. 1 couldn't give you much Of mar
gin of time to work on
THAT thirty minutes just gave me time to
get in on the uptown quotations. l missed
the lower Office, of course"
Hadn't we better hold this over?'
Yes; rather forgot-it'n wait until you
get here"
"Then Thursday night, at eight, say, at
the Grenoble!'
mo, no; make it 9:45-I don't get away
until them.
What would the Grenoble people say?'
That's so-you had better go to the Rails
ton. It's free and easy. Yes, the Ralston,'
he repeated. 1.-The Ralston, at 9:45, Thurs
day. Good-bye!
A moment later he could hear the frantic
signal-bell again.
Hello! Hello! What is it?''
Hello New York! Not through yet,
said the tired and nasal voice of the oper-
ator.
you forgot somethingr' 1t was the con-
tralto voice this time, reproaclful and
wounded. Durkin laughed a little he