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"Sunthin' ails him," Smith said. "Ain't all there I guess." The station-agent nodded a condescending agreement, and cocked his foot on another box. At this moment the upstanding boy detached himself from his companions, and strode to where the old man sat. "I beg your pardon," he said, "can you tell me how far it is to the Baldwin farm, and whether any of Mr. Sturgis's freight has come yet?"
Indeed, he was so engrossed in his subject that he did not hear footsteps approaching until his companion flashed a warning glance at him; and he swung round with some annoyance as the door opened. "I guessed I would find you here," said the station-agent, looking in with an indulgent smile. "You're a thoughtful man," retorted Edgar. "You may as well tell me what you want."
Your movable shack is almost as it used to be, though there is no absurd steel boat outside for me to stumble into. Would you believe it; the new station-agent has a Sears-Roebuck catalogue! I borrowed it of him to read.
"I'm glad to hear it," he replied mechanically. He was drinking her in, all the grace and loveliness and wonder of her, himself quite unconscious of the intensity of his gaze. She accepted the mute tribute untroubled; but there was a suggestion of puzzlement in the frown which began to pucker her forehead. "You're really the station-agent?" she asked with a slight emphasis upon the adverb. "Yes.
"But they can also be very useful." "But on the whole " "On the whole it is a necessary apprenticeship. Very suitable for a young man. Not a final career, in my judgment." "A reporter on The Ledger, then, is nothing but a reporter on The Ledger." "Isn't that enough, for a start?" smiled the other. "The station-agent at what was the name of your station? Yes, Manzanita.
"Well, nothing except random things for my own amusement." "Pass 'em over." Banneker shook his head. "No; I've never shown them to anybody." "Oh, all right. If you're shy about it," responded the reporter good-humoredly. "But you must have thought of writing as a profession." "Vaguely, some day." "You don't talk much like a country station-agent. And you don't act like one.
Rebuking himself for squeamishness, the station-agent returned to his office, caught an O.S. from the wire, took some general instructions, and went out to look at the weather. His glance never reached the horizon. In the foreground where he had swung the hammock under the alamo it checked and was held, absorbed. A blanketed figure lay motionless in the curve of the meshwork.
The railway company soon obtained another station-agent, but it was some years before the town got another mayor. On Pecos carnival nights like this, when some of the cowboys were in town, prudent people used to sleep on the floor of Van Slyke's store with bags of grain piled round their blankets two tiers deep, for no Pecos house walls were more than inch boards.
It seemed impossible that she didn't care for Lord Ralles, and that she might care for me; but, after having had no hope whatsoever, the smallest crumb of a chance nearly lifted me off my feet. We had a consultation over what was best to be done, but didn't reach any definite conclusion till the station-agent brought me a telegram from the Postmaster-General. Breaking it open, I read aloud,
Towards mid-afternoon I made out a speck of a boat over the water, and my friend, the station-agent, remarked, "There's your launch." I expressed my amazement that they should have ventured out in such weather.
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