Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/210

198 were in favor of sending a grievance committee in at once. "Who is the new guy?" asked the operator at Lookout one afternoon, when he supposed the second trick man was at the other end of the line.

"Go ahead, 'guy'" said Miss Morgan, for she had not yet been relieved.

"Working the first trick?" said the operator, finishing his query and making it plain. There was a dash of Irish in Minnie Morgan, and she answered without hesitation: "Miles Mulcahy."

"Solid with the new push?"

"Sure," was the girl's answer, and then she shut him off.

It was not long, however, until the trainmen carried the news out over the road that Miles Mulcahy was a woman, but not until the new despatcher had gained something of a reputation as an expert handler of trains. Many an operator who had indorsed the new despatcher upon divers occasions was now sorry he had done so.

A woman operator was bad enough, but a woman despatcher was sure, they argued, to make trouble. A girl at twenty giving orders