Page:George Collins - A Strange Railroad Wreck.pdf/46

32 for her to deliver to No. 49. But all human reason told her the train could not have passed. The signal was set to show a red light; it was only one minute after the scheduled time of the freight, and no person had ever known Forty-nine to be within an hour of that time. Then, too, it was a mild night in May, and every window in the office was partly open, nothing but the iron grating being between her and track, which was within twenty feet of the office windows. Surely a train passing would have awakened her! Of all these things she depended most upon the semaphore signal. To notice all this took but twenty or thirty seconds. Convinced by all visible signs and by her own reason, that she was doing nothing except that which was perfectly safe, she returned to the telegraph table and said to the dispatcher:

"No sign 49 yet."

"Hold them for orders," he replied, and then the following telegraphic train order was sent:

"To C. & E. No. 49, Lewistown.

"No 49 and No. 40 will meet at Lewistown instead of at Allenburg.

After receiving and repeating the order, she took up a square hand lantern, in which there was a red globe, and going outside of the station building hung it on a hook provided for that purpose. This red