The Night OperatorPackard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius)
General
The Night Operator
Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius)
Fiction; Railroad stories; Short stories
Kelly didn't say anything--then. With the express messenger and a
brakeman carrying Toddles, Kelly kicked in the station door, and set
his lamp down on the operator's table.
"Hold me up," whispered Toddles--and, while they held him, he made the
despatcher's call.
Big Cloud answered him on the instant. Haltingly, Toddles reported the
second section "in" and the freight "out"--only he did it very slowly,
and he couldn't think very much more, for things were going black. He
got an order for the Limited to run to Blind River and told Kelly, and
got the "complete"--and then Big Cloud asked who was on the wire, and
Toddles answered that in a mechanical sort of a way without quite
knowing what he was doing--and went limp in Kelly's arms.
And as Toddles answered, back in Big Cloud, Regan, the sweat still
standing out in great beads on his forehead, fierce now in the
revulsion of relief, glared over Donkin's left shoulder, as Donkin's
left hand scribbled on a pad what was coming over the wire.
Regan glared fiercely--then he spluttered:
"Who in hell's Christopher Hyslop Hoogan--h'm?"
Donkin's lips had a queer smile on them.
"Toddles," he said.
Regan sat down heavily in his chair.
"_What?_" demanded the super.
"Toddles," said Donkin. "I've been trying to drum a little railroading
into him--on the key."
Regan wiped his face. He looked helplessly from Donkin to the super,
and then back again at Donkin.
"But--but what's he doing at Cassil's Siding? How'd he get there--h'm?
H'm? How'd he get there?"
"I don't know," said Donkin, his fingers rattling the Cassil's Siding
call again. "He doesn't answer any more. We'll have to wait for the
story till they make Blind River, I guess."
And so they waited. And presently at Blind River, Kelly, dictating to
the operator--not Beale, Beale's day man--told the story. It lost
nothing in the telling--Kelly wasn't that kind of a man--he told them
what Toddles had done, and he left nothing out; and he added that they
had Toddles on a mattress in the baggage car, with a doctor they had
discovered amongst the passengers looking after him.
At the end, Carleton tamped down the dottle in the bowl of his pipe
thoughtfully with his forefinger--and glanced at Donkin.
"Got along far enough to take a station key somewhere?" he inquired
casually. "He's made a pretty good job of it as the night operator at
Cassil's."
Donkin was smiling.
"Not yet," he said.
"No?" Carleton's eyebrows went up. "Well, let him come in here with
you, then, till he has; and when you say he's ready, we'll see what we
can do. I guess it's coming to him; and I guess"--he shifted his
glance to the master mechanic--"I guess we'll go down and meet Number
Two when she comes in, Tommy."
Regan grinned.
"With our hats in our hands," said the big-hearted master mechanic.
Donkin shook his head.
"Don't you do it," he said. "I don't want him to get a swelled head."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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