The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-07
EVENING STORY
Evelyn's Holiday.
(By lola Forester. }

Day, Miss Bennett?'
The little fluffy-haired stenographer
near the window was always asking
impromptu questions more or less en-
barrassing.
Evelyn colored ever so slightly as
she bent to sign the last batch of let
tiers.
Il hardly think I shall get away.
am taking home some new estimates
to go over"
You're an awful goose to work so
hard. You don't get any thanks for
it, L can tell you that right now. 1
heard Mr.. Dorrance tell Jimmie you
were working yourself to death and
you'd die in harness in the forties.
You bet won't" She ran her fingers
thru her pretty curls daintily. I'm
going to Lake Lorraine on an excur-
sion.'
Excursions are very dangerous"
said Evelyn, a bit co1dly. IT don't like
crowds"
Don't you? I love them And I
love it when the band plays and the
boat starts away from the dock 1t
just thrills you. 1 can ride on ferry
ooat and almost make believe I'm go
ing to Europe
After the others had left the office,
Evelyn sat at her desk as usual, 60
ing over the last duties of the day
when the office was quiet. And some-
how the words of the little stenog-
rapher kept recurring to her. Was
she wrong to let life slip by without
secretary to Gates Waring, the civil
engineer He was out of town a great
deal of the time, and left the detail
of the office to her absolutely. Long
distance telephoning, night letters
these had been the sources of COM
munication between them Now and
then he came into the office for a few
Gays, ran over what she had prepared,
gave orders, and was gone gain. Some
OF MS own feverish energy seemed
transmitted to those WHO worked for
him. Evelyn liked to think she was
essential to him. Yet his words were
always few and impersonal. 1t was
more his manner.
When l get here" he had told her
once, Il always feel rested I'D a bit.
You take so much off my shoulders.
Miss Bennett
He was on his way north now, she
kneW; wire that morning stated he
would leave Washington Monday
morning. The office would be closed
Labor day She had plenty of oppor-
tunlty to go away for the day. And,
before she knew it, she had begun to
plan. There were SO many places she
might go to, relatives who lived out
of town and friends, too But some
way she wanted to find that zest and
thrill the stenographer had told her
OF. She wanted to be in a crowd
4 she left the office and rode uptown,
stopping in at a tempting little shop
open evenings on upper Broadway 1t
was the last breath of summer and
they We're closing out their suits and
coats. Sheschose a dark blue silk suit
made on Loose sport lines and a hat to
match, d hobby sailor shape in hand
sewed silk, with gulrs wing sweep
ing up in line of defiance from one
side, a beautiful pointed silver-gray
one.
The next nornine earlv che fo,,pd
herself on a jammed platform in Jer-
sew, waiting for the excursion cars to
be opened up. She had a ride of an
hour. then wonderful trip on lake.
a big hotel. And already she had
found the thrill of happiness, starting
away in the holiday throng. Only the
loneliness bothered her. Every one
else had somebody with her
| She had brought some magazines to
read on the train. 1t must have been
three-quarters of an hour before there
came the long, shrill whistle again
and again from the engine and the
grinding of the brakes. The people
around her rose and hurried to see
what the trouble was, but she sat
still, waiting. She had always had a
dread of accidents.
| ut isn't our train," somebody near
said after the brakeman had passed
thru. THE Washington express hit
freight
Evelyn heard and rose. OF course it
| could not be his train, and still she
crowd in the aisles down the car
length, out on the platform, down be-
| side the track.
| The engine of the express seemed to
have tried to climb up the caboose of
| the freight. 1t rose like an upreared
animal, it's head held high, the caboose
a mass of splintered debris.
mo one was hurt?" she asked the
man next her.
Guess the engineers killed. They
usually are he said cheerfully. 'They
say he's damned down under some
pipes They're afraid the currents
got him. There's a fellow from the
express gone up after him.
Gone up after him? She looked
again at the upreared mass. She could
see a mans figure now moving down
in the twisted jammed mass, the man
who was endangering his own life
from live wires on the big electric
engine. The thrill of it all, the actual
contact with life's tragedy, gripped
her. Tense and rigid, she waited with
the others until the man again, slowly
surely, struggled out with limp bur-
den in his arms.
Hes not dead yet" she heard him
say, and at the sound of his voice she
ran forward, ran like a child up tc
where he stood with both arms held
out.
"Oh, Mr.. Waring, can L help?'
His face and clothes were begrime6
and his hands burned. But he turned
to look at her with hiS curious smile
of amused contentment with life il
general.
,, DO you know where there's fresh
water?''
There's brook right in the fiel6
here" called out a boy from the neigh
borhood. "I'I show you
She followed Waring to it helped
him as he knelt down to battle hi:
, face, and tried to bandage his hand
|, with strips of torn-up handkerchiefs
; And while they stayed there, the ~his
! tie of the excursion train sounded.
81 haven't anything on it," Evelyr
). said. "Never mind if it does go with