The Harrison times., 1917-04-21
he ALSO SERVES"
BY IzoLA FORESTER.

Bellamy was assigned TO the Black
Creek station in February. He went
to it grimly, knowing all its demands
and dangers 1t was not only black
by name, but it held the blackballed
place Of honor with every operator in
Wisconsin. Timber stretches, then
the river, black and turbulent then
the embankment and railroad tracks
and his lone eyTie perchsd near the
water toweT-that was Black Creek
station. Back in the hills, if you fol-
lowed the corduroy road, you came to
a few houses. Belamy boarded at
one the first week, but tired of it,
and he heard OF Ma Appleys from
Operator No. 10.
She was stationed down at Sweet,
water, eight miles below Black Creek
After the frs week she would an
swer questions, and when he COM
planned of the food and lodging up at
the halfbreed's house, she told him
to hang on to the 1920 local and drop
off at Sweetwater and she'd take him
over to Ma Appleys.
That was the beginning for Bellamy,
All his life he remembered the picture
she made waiting for him on the plat
form. 1t wasn't that she was so beau
tiful. Bellamy only knew that she
was infinitely tender and womanly.
He found himself telling her all his
hopes and plans the third night, after
he had become a regular down at
Ma Appley's. And when he had fin
ished she had nodded her head.
Il know. l think every one should
set something ahead Of him and then
run for it. I'd rather be anything
than a gutter
The thought of that had made him
hang on to his nerve through six
months of Black Greek, with its lone
illness and hard work.
The river mad been high all day
When he took the station over at six,
Tucker, the day operator told him he
had tried for an hour to get an an
swer from Packers Grove, twenty-five
miles north along the river.
IF there's a washOut up there we'll
get it here during the night, and
Sweetwater and you'll have to hold
back the trains
Sweetwater and he He called her
IS soon as he was alone, his Sweet
water sweetheart, as he laughingly
named her to himself, Madge Lowell
on the company's pay roll.
Keep at the key she called. No
matter what happens, don't go away.
There are two passenger trains be-
sides the express, and it's up to US,
because we're at the top of the val
ley and will get the first alarm"
1t was a quarter OF eleven when
he heard the roar up the valley. He
leaned out Of the little side window
and saw the river dashing below, 1t
was over the siding tracks now and
rising. He called Sweetwater and
told her the food was booming down
the valley and the tracks were going
under And in five minutes she called
back that the express had left Chip
pewa Junction already, but she was
signaling it from her station. If it
passed he must call for help.
How can it pass you?'
The river may get me first"
Then he understood. He was in a
tower, but her little shack was on a
level with the tracks, few pine
boards with a water tank on one side
aud a semaphore on the other. The
river would pick it up like a chip.
He begged her to go away-to leave
the station and summon help. She
said there wasn't time. The express
was on the way up And then Bel.
lamy tried to make the key carry his
message to her, all that he had meant
to say, all that she was to him. And
she called back just this
Il know, dear. Here comes the eX'
press. The waters up to my door.
Good-by."
He staggered to the window and
hung out, listening as if he could
have made the night tell him what
was happening out in the heart OF it.
There came the call Of the express as
it swung around the curve below her;
above the roar Of the waters it came
family, a far-off, broken shrek, it
seemed to him, for help. Then 81
lence. He called Sweetwater dog
gedly, but no answer came. His wire
was still alive, though, and he caught
the first big town south, asking help
for Sweetwater and the express.
Through the slow, dread hours till
dawn broke he sat head down on his
arms at his table, Yet she had told
him to stick and he lived up to her
measure of him. answering each call
that came up the valley, warning
each town along the river stopping
each train at the points Of safety as
she would have begged him to do,
Tucker came an hour earlier CHEEKY
and riotously oyerjoyed to find the
station safe,
Bad night, eh?' he asked,