THE SIGNAL TOWER[6]

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      By WADSWORTH CAMP

       Table of Contents

      From The Metropolitan

      "I get afraid when you leave me alone this way at night."

      The big man, Tolliver, patted his wife's head. His coarse laughter was meant to reassure, but, as he glanced about the living-room of his remote and cheerless house, his eyes were uneasy. The little boy, just six years old, crouched by the cook-stove, whimpering over the remains of his supper.

      "What are you afraid of?" Tolliver scoffed.

      The stagnant loneliness, the perpetual drudgery, had not yet conquered his wife's beauty, dark and desirable. She motioned towards the boy.

      "He's afraid, too, when the sun goes down."

      For a time Tolliver listened to the wind, which assaulted the frame house with the furious voices of witches demanding admittance.

      "It's that——" he commenced.

      She cut him short, almost angrily.

      "It isn't that with me," she whispered.

      He lifted the tin pail that contained a small bottle of coffee and some sandwiches. He started for the door, but she ran after him, dragging at his arm.

      "Don't go! I'm afraid!"

      The child was quiet now, staring at them with round, reflective eyes.

      "Joe," Tolliver said gently, "will be sore if I don't relieve him on time."

      She pressed her head against his coat and clung tighter. He closed his eyes.

      "You're afraid of Joe," he said wearily.

      Without looking up, she nodded. Her voice was muffled.

      "He came last night after you relieved him at the tower. He knocked, and I wouldn't let him in. It made him mad. He swore. He threatened. He said he'd come back. He said he'd show us we couldn't kick him out of the house just because he couldn't help liking me. We never ought to have let him board here at all."

      "Why didn't you tell me before?"

      "I was afraid you'd be fighting each other in the tower; and it didn't seem so bad until dark came on. Why didn't you complain to the railroad when—when he tried to kiss me the other night?"

      "I thought that was finished," Tolliver answered slowly, "when I kicked him out, when I told him I'd punish him if he bothered you again. And I—I was a little ashamed to complain to the superintendent about that. Don't you worry about Joe, Sally, I'll talk to him now, before I let him out of the tower. He's due to relieve me again at midnight, and I'll be home then."

      He put on his great coat. He pulled his cap over his ears. The child spoke in a high, apprehensive voice.

      "Don't go away, papa."

      He stared at the child, considering.

      "Put his things on, Sally," he directed at last.

      "What for?"

      "I'll send him back from the tower with something that will make you feel easier."

      Her eyes brightened.

      "Isn't that against the rules?"

      "Guess I can afford to break one for a change," he said. "I'm not likely to need it myself to-night. Come, Sonny."

      The child shrank in the corner, his pudgy hands raised defensively.

      "It's only a little ways, and Sonny can run home fast," his mother coaxed.

      Against his ineffective reluctance she put on his coat and hat. Tolliver took the child by the hand and led him, sobbing unevenly, into the wind-haunted darkness. The father chatted encouragingly, pointing to two or three lights, scattered, barely visible; beacons that marked unprofitable farms.

      It was, in fact, only a short distance to the single track railroad and the signal tower, near one end of a long siding. In the heavy, boisterous night the yellow glow from the upper windows, and the red and green of the switch lamps, close to the ground, had a festive appearance. The child's sobs drifted away. His father swung him in his arms, entered the tower, and climbed the stairs. Above, feet stirred restlessly. A surly voice came down.

      "Here at last, eh?"

      When Tolliver's head was above the level of the flooring he could see the switch levers, and the table, gleaming with the telegraph instruments, and dull with untidy clips of yellow paper; but the detail that held him was the gross, expectant face of Joe.

      Joe was as large as Tolliver, and younger. From that commanding position, he appeared gigantic.

      "Cutting it pretty fine," he grumbled.

      Tolliver came on up, set the child down, and took off his overcoat.

      "Fact is," he drawled, "I got held back a minute—sort of unexpected."

      His eyes fixed the impatient man.

      "What you planning to do, Joe, between now and relieving me at midnight?"

      Joe shifted his feet.

      "Don't know," he said uncomfortably. "What you bring the kid for? Want me to drop him at the house?"

      Tolliver shook his head. He placed his hands on his hips.

      "That's one thing I want to say to you, Joe. Just you keep away from the house. Thought you understood that when you got fresh with Sally the other night."

      Joe's face flushed angrily.

      "Guess I was a fool to say I was sorry about that. Guess I got to teach you I got a right to go where I please."

      Tolliver shook his head.

      "Not to our house, if we don't want you."

      The other leered.

      "You so darned sure Sally don't want me?"

      Impulsively Tolliver stepped forward, closing his fists.

      "You drop that sort of talk, or——"

      Joe interrupted, laughing.

      "One thing's sure, Tolliver. If it came to a fight between me and you I'd be almost ashamed to hit you."

      Through his passion Tolliver recognized the justice of that appraisal. Physically he was no match for the younger man.

      "Things," he said softly, "are getting so we can't work here together."

      "Then," Joe flung back, as