The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-11-21
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MAD With THE HEAT
BY EocERroN FRANKLIN.

e00enION FRANKLIN.
The sounder called, in Wilkes law
way-Wilkes up the line at Bradford
ana belcher awoke from his doze and
answered.
Seen the PRESIDENT" inquired his
sounder. ~
Belcher licked back that he had not
and inquired If there was any news.
Inc sounder said: odd mans either
gone through on one of the fast trains
or is going through. Stop his train and
tnank him for me. Now, shut up!"
beicher snarled as he turned away
from the table. That was Wilkes
iacetious way of saying Good morn.
ing over the telegraph wire. 1t made
him tired.
Everything made Belcher tired. He
rose YEARLY and shuffled out to the lit.
Tie platform Of Raynor station. Twelve
years of looking at that platform had
made him dead tired.
He looked around. Down the line
eastward. Belfield, presumably swell
terlng in the heat, and 20 miles away.
up the line, Bradford, another 20 miles
away. North, an endless trip of fiat
middle West country, uninhabitated,
oHering no excuse for existence save
as haven for some solitude-loving
salamander, quivering just now in the
awful sun. Southwark precisely the
same thing, with the main road mile
away and out of sight, and the heat
quivering more violently, If possible.
On, yes, 1t was unusually warm that
day, Belcher reflected, as he glanced at
the thermometer and noted that, in the
shade, it stood just ia. 1t was hot
enough to make man sit down again
so Belcher sat on the edge of the plat
form, his face in his dry palms.
Poor old Belcher! At thirty he looked
forty, and felt fifty. He had entered
the w. & E. service. right here al
Raynor, when eighteen years of age, g
graduated telegrapher, at $12 a week
He had also assumed the duties o
station, freight and express agent
porter, ticket agent, track-walker an,
Information bureau to the two or three
dozen who detrained there monthly
And he still earned $12 week.
Not that he had not been buoyan
and ambitious at first. Why, at frs
he would have bet ten years of his 81
istence that he'd be chief train-dis
patcher, at the very least. by thi
J time. But the monotony of the thinf
the heat in summer and the cold i
I winter, the twicc-a day tramp, with tn
\ station and Benker's shabby farm
q house at the respective ends, ha
= worked into l'elcher.
a His head had a queer feeling. Fl
rubbed it stupidly. Probably it was tn
heat; BelCher didn't care much H
>, only wished he had the president 81
ting there in that soundlcss hell,
talk things over and say that he W.
sorry the matter hadn't been attendt
| to before, and that he'd raise Belch'
at least five dollars at once. If
didn't say that, Belcher had motto
that he'd throttle him.
With another groan, Belcher sht
fed to the end of the platform and
tracted from the closet something
! his own contrivance-a sledge and
strip of iron, with a small spike
either end. Whether he felt lazy
not, he'd have to pull together tn
crack in the tie next the switch al
keep it from spreading wide open
! fore the track repairers finally work
around to replacing the tie-sol
! seventy or eighty years hence.
YEARLY, he shufed across the ira
and looked the thing over Yes, abe
two weeks more, or a good rain, q
there'd be one tie split in two and
loose rail,
There was no way of fixing it,
the mechanism OF that particu
] switch locked or open, usually
clined TO operate with anything II
than . hammer, and now it was tw
ed ard broken to bits Still more,
morning express ran on mighty eli
time. And
/; "What the dickens ere you dom
n loud voice buz2ed into his Slim
brain.
Eelcher turned quickly. He s'aI
He stared harder still, As certainly
he breathed, it was President Buill
black-clad, puffy, red-faced, the Y
gentleman with whom Eelaher
wanted 10 hobrrh-or slaughter!
"That was deliberate destruction
the company's property! thunde
the bulky man q sa@ it
Momentarily he sa" more.
cher's hard fist struck him in the
gion of the solar plexus, and
sprawled backward, with the lone
tion.agent doing wild war ga
over him.
Mr.. Bullion did not stre%s,t
the time he was al,oGe- ae5 TO q
Belcher stepped back al LIS
somewhat wildly. mspir1,lon
fairly blasted into his duiled bsai
There was his strip o. i'm 10
the tie together; there Tse hs -
there was Buttons MOI .tit
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