Could she by any means prevent the robbery? The man in the coffin was certainly a prisoner until some one released him, for the steel chain was much too strong for one man’s strength to break. But he would have confederates, several perhaps, and how could she, a girl, hope to outwit them?
If she ran all the way to the Settlement, the robbery might take place before she could get back. She might even be intercepted, and prevented from giving an alarm.
Then she remembered the telegraph, and darting into her office, the door of which was open, she struck a light, and prepared to wire to Bratley, or if necessary to Lytton for help.
To her dismay, however, she could not get into communication anywhere; the wires had been cut.
Strangely enough, this new phase of disaster, instead of overwhelming her, braced her nerves, and made her determined to succeed in summoning help to save the railway company from robbery.
She thought of the inspection trip which she had made with the inspector, and of his explanation of how a message could be sent if the wire were cut. But when she had found where the wire had been cut, how was she, a girl, to climb a twenty-foot telegraph-pole in the dark and carry with her the long end of the wire? Then suddenly she remembered that there was a testing pole about a mile away; that is, a pole with iron spikes sticking out at intervals, up which an active person might climb. The inspector had explained to her that at each station the wire was carried down into the ground, and that the current, after passing along it, made its way through the earth to the point from which it started. It occurred to her therefore that if she could climb the testing pole she might be able to complete the circuit by cutting the wire there and then tapping one of the ends against the lightning conductor, with which most of the poles in that ironstone region had been fitted, a long metal rod running down into the earth. If she could do this, she felt sure she would be able to send a message. At any rate she could try.
A mile away, and the ground so rough it would take her at least twenty minutes to get there, and even then she would have to cut the wire. But there was a wire-cutter in the drawer of the instrument table, and seizing it she dashed out to the warm darkness of the September gloom, and, taking a path leading away from the railway track, ran at top speed until she was pretty well exhausted.
Then she dropped on the ground for a twofold purpose—first to get a complete rest, and secondly to hear if she were being followed.
But there was no sound that reached her ears, saving her own panting breath, and after a brief rest she was up and away again, heading straight for the railway now, and getting over the ground faster than at first, because the going was smoother.
Having arrived at the testing pole, she had to drop on the ground again and have another rest, for she was much too tremulous and exhausted to attempt the climb until she had recovered her breath a little.