United States or Tunisia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Bucks, calmed somewhat but suffering intensely, paced the floor or threw himself into his chair, while Scott picked up the despatcher's old copy of "The Last of the Mohicans," and smoking silently sat immovable, waiting with his customary stoicism for the call that should announce the dreaded wreck. The moments loaded with anxiety went with leaden feet while the two men sat.
When the trains run on time it is all very simple, and the work of the despatcher, the man who keeps track of the trains, is easy. When, however, the system is disarranged by the failure of a train to keep to its schedule, the despatcher's work becomes most difficult.
A despatcher's work is cut out for him, just as the tailor would cut his cloth for a journeyman workman, and when his eight hour trick is done, his work for the day is finished and his time is his own. Not so the chief.
There was only one wire on this arm, so I had, comparatively speaking, plenty of room. On each of the other two cross arms there were four wires, and there was also one strung along the tops of the poles. This made ten wires in all, and I had not the least idea which one was the despatcher's wire. The pole being wet from the rain, made the wires mighty hot to handle.
It was after the shouting had died away in a confused clatter of hoofs, and the pistol cracklings were coming only at intervals and from an increasing distance, that the corridor door opened and the night despatcher's off-trick man came in with a message for Hallock.
Judson's dash and his capture of the out-going train were easily accounted for: he had seen Hallock. But where was Hallock going? Lidgerwood was still asking himself the question half-abstractedly when he crossed to his desk and touched the buzzer-push which summoned an operator from the despatcher's room. "Wire Mr.
It came about through an ambition in itself honorable the ambition of Bud Cawkins to become a train-despatcher. Bud began railroading on the Wind River. In three months he was made an agent, in six months he had become an expert in station work, an operator after a despatcher's own heart, and the life of the line; then he began looking for trouble.
It was on Rooney's account that McCloud's order banishing cuspidors from his office had been rescinded. A few evenings of agony on the despatcher's part when in consultation with his chief, the mournful wandering of his uncomplaining eyes, his struggle to raise an obstinate window before he could answer a question, would have moved a heart harder than McCloud's.
He noted the perplexity on the despatcher's face when the latter tried to get the sender of the call. "Some one is cutting in on the line," exclaimed Bucks, mystified, as the sounder clicked. "Bob, it is Bill Dancing." A pause followed. "What can it mean, his sending a message to me? He is between Bitter Creek and Castle Springs. Wait a moment!" The receiver clicked sharp and fast.
Then, too, you can earn nearly as much in State's prison as you can at your trick. A despatcher's salary is high, you know seventy-five, eighty, and even a hundred dollars a month. "Of course, there's an unpleasant side of it. I don't want to seem to draw it too rosy. I imagine you've heard Blackburn's story, haven't you the lap-order at Rosebud?
Word Of The Day