Less than a mile down the track, Prince came to the tiny signal house
for which he had been looking. The door was locked, and so numb and
clumsy were his fingers that he found it hard to force it open. Once
on the inside, he felt that the struggle was nearly over. This was the
end. Using the railway's private phone, he astonished the telegraph
operator in Fort Morgan by cutting in on him and asking him to run
across to the nearest garage with a call for a service car.
For a long moment the operator was speechless. Did you ever hear of
insolence like that? He told Prince to get off that wire and keep his
hands away from railway property or he would land in the pen. Then he
went back to his work. But Prince cut in on him again. Finally the
operator referred him to the station master and gave him the
connection. But the station master refused to meddle with any such
irregular business. This was against the law, and station masters are
strong for law and order. But Prince was persistent. At last, in
despair, they connected him with the district superintendent.
"Who in thunder are you, and what do you want?" asked the
superintendent in no gentle voice.
"I want some of those sap-heads of yours in Fort Morgan to take a
message to the garage, and they won't do it," yelled Prince.
"Say, what do you think this is? A philanthropic messenger service?"
ejaculated the superintendent.
"I haven't got time to talk," cried Prince. "I've got to get at a
garage, and quickly."
"Well, we don't run a garage."
"Shut up a minute and listen, will you? There is a woman out here on
the track, half frozen. We are twenty miles from a house. Will you
send that message or not? The woman can't live two hours."
"Well, why didn't you tell what was the matter? I will connect you
with the operator at Fort Morgan and tell him to do whatever you say.
You stay on the wire until he reports they have a car started."
So Prince was flung back to the operator at Fort Morgan, and that
high-souled scion of the railway was sent out like a common delivery
boy to take a message. Prince waited in an agony of suspense for the
report from the garage. It was not favorable. No man in town would go
out on a wild goose chase into the plains on a night like that.
Awfully sorry, nothing doing.
"Take a gun and make them come," said Prince, between set teeth.
"I'm not looking for trouble. Your woman would freeze before they got
there anyhow."
"Send the sheriff," begged Prince.
"He couldn't get out there a night like this in time to do you any
good."
This was literally true. For a second Prince was silent.
"Anything else?" asked the operator. "Want me to run out and get you a
cigar, or a bottle of perfume, or anything?"
"Then there is just one thing to do," said Prince abruptly. "I'll have
to flag the first train and get her aboard."
"What! You can't do it. You don't dare do it. It is against the law
to flag a train on private business."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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