"Well," I replied, "I wasn"t taking any chances on the matter."
Then he laughed loud enough to be heard a block away and said, "Why, that pistol hasn"t been loaded for six months, I was just running a bluff on you, and you bit like a fish."
Good joke, wasn"t it? We had our drink, _and his message was sent by one of the day force, at eight-twelve A. M._
The Morse telegraphic alphabet is exactly the same the world over, and yet each operator has a peculiarity to his sending, or "stuff," as it is called, that makes it easy to recognize an old friend, even though his name be changed.
In the early part of my career, when I was working days at X----, in Nebraska, at Sweeping Water there was a chap called Ned Kingsbury holding down the night job, and as wild a youngster as ever hit the road. One night when I was sitting up a little late I heard the despatcher give Ned an order for a train that ordinarily would not stop there. Ned repeated it back all right enough, and then gave the signal, "6," which meant that he had turned his red-light to the track and would hold it there until the order was delivered and understood. So far, so good. But the reckless little devil had forgotten to turn his red-board and proceeded to write to some of his numerous girls, and the first thing he knew that freight train went smashing by at a thirty-five mile clip, and Mr. Ned knew he was up against it.
In some states a railroader guilty of criminal negligence is sent up for a term of from one to ten years. The smash up that resulted from Ned"s carelessness was a catastrophe of the fatal kind; one engineer was killed, and a fireman and brakeman or two laid up for months. He fully realized the magnitude of his offence and promptly skipped away from the wrath that was sure to follow, and nothing more was heard of him in that section of the country.
This all happened a number of years before I went to work in Fort Worth, and one morning I was doing a little "scooping," by working days, and sat down to send on the "DA" quad. I worked hard for about two hours on the polar side, and was sending to some cracker jack, who signed "KY."
Shortly after that I changed over to the receiving side and "KY" did the sending to me. I had been taking about ten messages and the conviction was growing on me momentarily that the sending was very familiar and that I must have known the sender. Where had I heard that peculiar jerky sending before? It was as plain as print, but there was an individuality about it that belonged only to one man. All at once that night in Nebraska flashed on my mind and I knew my sender was none other than Ned Kingsbury. I broke him and said,
"h.e.l.lo, Ned Kingsbury, where did you come from?"
"You"ve got the wrong man this time, sonny, my name is Pillsbury," he replied.
"Oh! come off. I"d know that combination of yours if I heard it in Halifax. Didn"t you work at Sweeping Water, Nebraska, some time ago, and didn"t you have some kind of a queer smash up there?"
Then he "fessed up and said he had recognized my stuff as soon as he heard it, but hadn"t said anything in hopes I wouldn"t twig him.
"Don"t give me away, old chap. I"m flying the flag now and have lost all my former brashness."
I never did.
CHAPTER IX
BILL BRADLEY, GAMBLER AND GENTLEMAN
Telegraphers are, as a rule, a very nomadic cla.s.s, wandering hither and thither like a chip buffeted about on the ocean. Their pathway is not always one of roses, and many times their feet are torn by the jagged rocks of adversity. I was no different from any of the rest, neither better nor worse, and many a night I have slept with only the deep blue sky for a covering, and it may be added--sotto voce--it is not a very warm blanket on a cold night. "Tis said, an operator of the first cla.s.s can always procure work, but there are times when even the best of them are on their uppers. For instance, when winter"s chill blasts sweep across the hills and dales of the north, like swarms of swallows, operators flit southwards to warmer climes, and for this reason the supply is often greater than the demand.
I was a "flitter" of the first water, and after I had been in Fort Worth for a very short while I became possessed of a desire to see something of the far famed border towns along the Rio Grande frontier. So I went south to a town called Hallville, and found it a typical tough frontier town. I landed there all right enough and then proceeded to gently strand. Work was not to be had, money I had none, and my predicament can be imagined. Many of you have doubtless been on the frontier and know what these places are. There was the usual number of gambling dens, dance halls and saloons, and of course they had their variety theatre.
Ever go into one of the latter places? The first thing that greets your eye is a big black and white sign "Buy a drink and see the show."
Inside, at one end, is the long wooden bar, presided over by some thug of the highest order, with a big diamond stuck in the centre of a broad expanse of white shirt front. At the other end is the so-called stage, while scattered about indiscriminately are the tables and chairs. The air is filled--yea, reeking--with the fumes of bad whiskey, stale beer, and the odor of foul smelling cheap tobacco smoke, and through all this haze the would-be "show," goes on, and the applause is manifested by whistles, cat calls, the pounding of feet on the floor and gla.s.ses on the tables. Occasionally some artist (?) will appear who does not seem to strike the popular fancy and will be greeted by a beer gla.s.s or empty bottle being fired at his or her head.
Now, at the time of which I speak, my prospects were very slim, and as nature had endowed me with a fair singing voice, I had just about made up my mind to go to the Palace Variety Theatre and ask for a position as a vocalist. I could, at least, sing as well as some of the theatrical bygones that graced the place. The price of admission in one of these places is simply the price of a drink. I felt in my pocket and found that I had one solitary lonely dime, and swinging aside the green baize door, I entered.
"Gimme a beer," I said laying down my dime. A small gla.s.s, four-fifths froth and one-fifth beer, was skated at me by the bartender from the other end of the counter, and my dime was raked into the till.
Then I stood around like a b.u.mp on a log, trying to screw my courage up to ask the blear eyed, red-nosed Apollo for a job. Some hack voiced old chromo was trying to warble "Do they miss me at home," and mentally I thought "if he had ever sung like that when he was at home they were probably glad he had left." The scene was sickening and disgusting to me, but empty stomachs stand not on ceremony, so I turned around and was just about to accost the proprietor, when Biff! I felt a stinging whack between my shoulders. Quickly I faced about, all the risibility of my red headed nature coming to the surface, and there I saw a big handsome chap standing in front of me. Six feet tall, broad-shouldered, straight, lithe limbs, denoting herculean strength, a ma.s.sive head poised on a well shaped neck, two cold blue eyes, and a face covered by a bushy brown beard; dressed in well fitting clothes, trousers tucked in the tops of shiny black boots, long Prince Albert coat and a broad sombrero set rakishly on one side of his head. Such was the man who hit me in the back.
"h.e.l.lo, youngster, what"s your name?"
Rubbing my lame shoulder, I said, "Well it might be Jones and it might be Smith, but it ain"t, and I don"t know what affair it is of yours, any way."
"Oh! come now, boy, don"t get huffy. You"ve got an honest face and appear to be in trouble. What is it? Out with it. You"re evidently a tenderfoot and this h.e.l.l-hole of vice isn"t a place for a boy of your years. What"s your name? Come over here at this table and sit down and tell me."
Something in his bluff hearty manner gave me hope and after sitting down, I said.
"My name is Martin Bates. I"m a telegraph operator by profession and blew into this town this morning on my uppers. I can"t get work and I haven"t a red cent to my name. It is necessary for me to live, and as I can sing a little bit, I came in here to see if I could get a job warbling. I won"t beg or steal, and there is no one here I can borrow from. There"s my story. Not a very pleasant one is it?"
"There may have been worse. How long since you"ve had anything to eat."
"Nine o"clock this morning," I grimly replied.
"Good Lord, that"s twelve hours ago. Come on with me out of here and I"ll fix you up."
Meekly I followed my new found friend. I was sick at heart, weary and worn out in body and I didn"t care a rap whether school kept or not; anything would be better than my present situation. He took me about three blocks up the main street and we went into a suite of beautifully furnished rooms. He rang a bell, a darkey came in, and it wasn"t long before I had a lunch in front of me fit for the G.o.ds, and I may add it didn"t take me many minutes to get outside of it. My friend watched me narrowly while I was eating, and when I had finished he said,
"Now youngster, you"re all tired out. You go to bed in the next room and get a good night"s sleep. In the morning we"ll see what we can do for you, but one thing is certain, you"re not going into that vile hole of a Palace Theatre again. Somewhere in this world you have a father and mother who are praying for you this night. Don"t make a slip in your pathway in life and break their hearts. Everything is safe and quiet here and no one will disturb you until I come in in the morning."
There was a peculiar earnestness in his voice as he spoke that was very convincing, and as he rose to go out, I meekly said,
"What"s your name, mister?"
"Bill Bradley," he answered with a queer smile. "Now don"t you ask any more questions to-night," and with that he was gone.
I went to bed almost sick from my exposure and lack of food, and just as the old sand man of childhood"s happy days began to sprinkle his grains in my eyes, I heard, way off in the distance, a peculiar click and a drawling voice calling off some numbers. "Four." "Sixteen."
"Thirty-three." "Seventy-eight." "Ten." "Twenty-six," and then, a great shout arose and some one called out "KENO." Ah! I was near a gambling house, but I was too tired to care, nature a.s.serted herself, and I gently crossed the river into the land of Nod.
The next morning I was really sick with a high fever, and when Bill came in I was well nigh loony.
"h.e.l.lo," he said, "this won"t do. Tom, I say, you Tom, go and tell Doctor Bailey I want him here quick. D--n quick. Do you hear?" and black Tom answered, "Yas, suh."
To be brief, I was three weeks on my back, and bluff old Bill Bradley nursed me like a loving mother would a sick child. Day and night he hung over me, never a thing did I need but what he procured for me, and one day after the fever had left me and I was sitting up by an open window, I said,
"Mr. Bradley, what do you do for a living?"
"Boy," he replied with a flushed face, "I am sorry you asked that question, but sooner or later you would have heard it and I"d a great deal rather tell you about it myself. I"m a gambler and these three rooms adjoin my place which is called the "Three Nines," and then he told me the story of his life. He was a son of a fine Connecticut family, a graduate of Harvard, and in his day had been a very able young lawyer with brilliant prospects, but one night, he went out with a crowd of roystering chaps, the lie was pa.s.sed, and--it was the old story,--he came to Texas for a refuge. The great civil war was just over, the country in a chaotic state, and there he had remained ever since. Thrown with wild, uncouth men, and being reckless in the extreme, he opened a gambling house.
"Why did you take this great interest in me?" I asked.
"Look here, young chap, you are altogether too inquisitive. I"ve got an old father and mother way up in Ball Brooke, Connecticut, whose hearts have been broken by my actions, and when I saw you in that h.e.l.lish den of vice you looked so out of place that I determined to save you. It was impulse, my boy, and then again, it may have been the remembrance of the one, at whose knee I used to lisp, "Now I lay me down to sleep.""
My recovery was very rapid from that time on, and when I was able to work I secured a position in the commercial office in Hallville. One evening after being paid I strolled into the "Three Nines;" Bill was dealing faro, and I thought I might in a measure, show my grat.i.tude towards him by risking a coin. There was a big crowd standing around the table, but I edged my way in and placed a dollar on the queen to win. Luck was with me and I won. Once, twice, thrice, did the cards come my way, and my stack of whites and reds was growing. This didn"t seem to me much like grat.i.tude to win a man"s money, and I wished I hadn"t started. Presently Bill looked up, and spying me, pointed to my stack of chips, and said, "Whose stack is that?" "Mine," I replied, and with one fell swoop he dashed the chips into the rack, and taking a ten-dollar bill from the drawer, he turned to his side partner and said, "Jim, take the deal," and then he got up, took me by the arm, saying, "You come with me."
Feeling like a sneak I followed him, and when we had reached his sitting-room, he sat down and said,
"Kid, how much were you in on that deal?"
"Just one dollar," I replied.
Then he looked at me, his eyes shone like coals of fire, and he said,