The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-01-26
a rHRrLL1Ha STORY.

an out of-the-way railroad in one of
| the old secondhand cars from more
prosperous road / was very much an
noyed by the incessant rafting of
the car-windows. II IS said that
misery loves company" and at
last shouted my feelings on the sub
ject to the passenger beside me, a
middle-aged. business-looking man,
who shouted back
"Yes, it is pretty noisy but it
don't mean anything and 1t amt
dangerous. You probably never
heard window talk nationally, not
to say intelligently 7" he said.
s'Not that can remember" re-
piled. a little ironically. ibid
you 7"
"I have" said he, sand as soon
as we stop 1 will not only make a
window talk, but possibly get an
answer from some other window. =
When we had stopped my neigh
Dor touched me on the shoulder and
said Nov let me sit by that win
dow and I will show you something
amusing, and afterward tell you a
story"
changed seats with him, and
he, taking hold of the window, be-
gan to rattle at a lively rate, pausing
every few seconds to listen. Pretty
soon I was surprised to hear win
dow at the other end of the car be-
hind us rattle in the same manner.
"Now," said the stranger, ask
me question about the back of some
person sitting behind US, without
either of us looking behind"
"Well," said I. describe to me
the appearance of the back of the
head of say the outside passenger in
the third seat behind as.
He ratified the window and then
listened to the answering window.
Then he said:
"There is no person sitting just
there. Try again.
I looked, and sure enough he was
right. So I made it the fifth seat.
'sShort black hair, one side grey,
high shirt collar and coat collar turn
ed up. Railroad ticket in the back
of his hat,'' said my companion at
the window.
Stepping back, I found that the
description was correct. one side of
the mans hair being turned white,
probably from disease.
"How did you do it?" I asked, as
took my seat again.
"By telegraphy," he said. II at
first sounded the single word Fire !
over and over again till it caught
the trained ear of an operator at the
other end of the ear and he telegraph
ed what wanted to know. So you
see a window may rattle intelligi-
bly,"
eyes," said 1, "and now about
the story"
Ane he proceeded to relate the
following: ~
"Ten years ago I was telegraph
operator at small town In New Jer-
sey, but my health failing, I gave up
the situation, apr ,aking an agency,
travelled westwata until 1 reached
San Francisco. While there / took
fancy to visit the mining regions /;
SO selecting suitable goods to sell to
miners, went and satisfied my
curiosity, made little money and
was returning in stage-coach, when
the incident I am about to relate
occurred.
There were, beside myself, three
inside passengers: an old man OF 90
aud two roughly-dressed men, appar-
emily miners. These two men sat at
opposite ends of the coach, not ap-
pearing to know each other, while
the Ole gentleman and myself sat
close together. noticed that the
old gentleman had a tin or iron box
between his legs, which he seemed
anxious to keep out of sight.
After a short conversation with
him on general subjects allowed
myself to drift gently into a doze,
and while in that condition my ear,
trained as it was to the intelligent
sound of the telegraph instrument,
caught faint tic, tic, which soon
resolved itself into the following
words
"Bill, the young one is going to
sleep and / will tend to him while
you pitch the old one out oyer the
precipice when / make the signal,
and grab the box"
I was now as wide awake as if I
had been called" by an operator to
receive message, but / pretended to
be still DOING, while listened in
tently. Then heard window rat
tie, and it read:
'sAll right, Bob. We will be to
the Big Jump in about twenty min
utes and then give the word and out
he goes"
Taking a curious look from be-
tween my eyelids I saw that one OF
the villains was telegraphing by vib-
rating a knife blade between his
teeth, while the other used the win
dow for that purpose, and neither of
them appearing to notice the other.
1 knew the precipice to which they
referred, a terrible place where a
miner had once jumped off in fit OF
despair at his bad luck, from which
it was known as the Big Jump. How
to communicate to the old gentleman
/ was at loss to determine but at
length l took out a newspaper and
underscored the words in a lengthy
editorial which, consecutively would
read: "Be cautious, Sir. These
two williams here intend to murder
and rob us in ten minutes. When ]
arise you attack the one with the
moustache and will take the other.
Kill if necessary.
I then handed the paper to the ole
gentleman, saying: "Have you
4 - "a = - ~~~l