Page:George Collins - A Strange Railroad Wreck.pdf/40

26 "Good night."

Train No. 49 on the schedule was a mixed freight, leaving Unionville at midnight and being due at Lewistown passing siding at 3:04 A. M. As all railroad men know, scheduled freights on a single track system are not on time once in six months. They invariably run on special orders, owing to work and other delays along the road keeping them far behind their scheduled time. On the night in question, however, No. 49 left Unionville with but ten cars of freight, and had no work south of Lewistown, which made it possible to be on time for once, providing nothing of an unusual nature happened to prevent it.

Mercedes thought she never knew a night to be so long. She found her book dull, the evening paper was unnoticed, and at last she attempted to while away the hours writing letters to friends, but gave up in despair.

"Oh, what's the use—what's the use of anything?" she murmured, laying her head on both arms as she leaned upon the telegraph table.

She was aroused by hearing the report of a train being sent to the dispatcher at Pittsburg [sic], and in a moment was all attention. It was No. 47—the train which left Unionville at nine o'clock—the train upon which the man she loved was employed—and it would pass Lewistown in ten or fifteen minutes. These