The wageworker., 1909-02-13
Copyright. by shortstory Pub. Coz

| influence, about it, I had spoken of
it to no one, even to my fireman, but l
concluded to say something to him, SO
l asked:
John, have you ever seen anything
unusual, as we go east, in No. AZ
Yes he replied, I confess I have
seen, or imagined l have seen, that fig
ure in white that we struck
There was little Consolation, or ex-
PLANTATION, in that for me, SO l dropped
the subject. said no more to any
one, but during the next month l did
a lot of thinking, for not single trip
| did we go east but what this figure in
| white would glide out of No. ahead
| of U.S.
'Then one night I had the pleasure
of sitting behind the first electric head
light ever placed on one of our en-
gines. My fireman and | were very
proud of it, and were anxious to see
how it would work. After we had
made 60 miles and noted how much
stronger the light was, and how much
palmer and farther we could see by
this light than by the old lamp, said:
john tonight we can get a better
| view of what flags us in No. A.
"The night was dark, and as we
heavy rains was apparent, and a mist
hung over everything. All went well
till we were signaled down to a dead
stop, and lost 80 minutes, while a land
slide was removed from the track
Fifty miles an hour was our regu-
lar schedule and anything that had
Ii
not have as much time tonight for,
in making up lost time, | was pushing
the SIS at 20 miles when we stuck her
nose into No. 4.
Now for our figure in white!
"'Will she get out of our way-get in
the clear?'
LAS we dashed through every nerve
was at it's highest tension, my eyes
were riveted along the beam of cleo
trio light.
I'VE neared the exit!
1--WE reached it!
Il looked over at John, as much as
to ask:
What has become of the figure in
white?"'
When in answer to my mental
|
clutched my arm and shouted:
For Gods sake-stop!
3Yonder she stands in the bridge,
but now-now she's in black
Looking ahead l saw what made
my heart leap, for, sure enough, there
stood quivering black object in the
center of the bridge, only one-quarter
of a mile away. Quick as thought 1
knocked the throttle in, turned on air
and reversed her-coming to a stop
less than 200 yards from the bridge.
By this time our conductor, lantern in
hand, was out by the side of the train
and l called for him to come forward,
and showed him what had caused me
to stop.
What's that crazy woman doing
out there tonight? Do you suppose
there's anything wrong with the
bridge? Let's go ahead and see?
"'Come on, John, and go with u.s.
ION the way I had all kinds of
thoughts. The past and the present
were enough to make a fellow think.
:. "As we neared the river we could
. hear it roaring, when John, who was
ahead, suddenly stopped with the
startling information:
1.-The bridge is gone
Sure enough it was, but not so with
!, the black, quivering signal It still
stood there, silent and ominous warn
ing-stood there above tie roaring wa
ter with no more support than the air
itself
so we left it. A
LAS we walked back to the train we
all tried to explain who, what, or
. which it was, but evidently to no ones
satisfaction. Several times we stopped
;. = and looked back to see if it had gone
Each time we saw the same black,
:, quivering specter-the specter, or
whatever it was-that had saved all
!. our lives.
LAS we neared the engine we saw a
a white object lying on the pilot. John
7 rushed forward, picked it up, and held
: it out at arms length:
q "A snow-white pigeon!
!. Naturally, L glanced upward, and
+ as l did SO my eyes fell upon an OBJ
ject sticking on the very center of the
" glass of the headlight.
John l said, climb up there and
? see what that is
t HE hurriedly did SO, and holding it
e up, said:
e Its white feather out of that
d pigeon we've struck and killed.
J. "'Put that feather back there ex-
citedly called the conductor
/; Sticking it back on the glass, which
r was wet from heavy mist, John said:
s There you are; what about it?'
O Look toward the bridge, from the
conductor
e There stood the warning figure in
j. black.
e "s.Now take the feather away
.It was removed.
sssNou 1ook toward tho hri1pn,