Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/106

94 there was a lone operator and a water tank. The station agent gave her food and offered her shelter, but she shook her head and asked him where the river lay. The spectacle of a woman wandering about half-crazed, half-starved, and alone, was a sad one; and the operator, feeling his own utter loneliness, tried to persuade her to stay. Pointing to the west, she began to chant:—

"Then she bared her bowed head, and he saw the little round red spot where the skin had been cut away, and understood. This revelation, however, caused the agent to re double his efforts to save the hapless maiden from herself.

"After much coaxing he succeeded in get ting her into his little room in the rear of the telegraph office, where she soon fell asleep. The sun went down and still she slept, and he knew she was safe, at least for another day. The darkness deepened on the desert waste, the evening wore away, the operator got '