“I can do twenty words comfortably,” replied Nell, modestly; then added, with deprecating candour, “but I’m not on the list yet, so I can only do deputy work.”
“Get yourself put on the list, then, the very first time the inspector comes this way; he’ll be glad enough to get a twenty-word operator, I can tell you, for some of the beginners are a fearfully slow lot.”
Nell began to feel reassured, and when, a few minutes later, the clicking call of the sounder gave warning of a message coming, she took her place at the table and wrote the words down as they came through.
“Stop Roseneath cars for twenty minutes; supplies on to Camp’s Gulch got wrong.”
“What does it mean?” asked Nell, in a bewildered tone, as she stared at the message she had written down.
“You’ve got to stop the cars, of course; run, or you will be too late,” said Miss Simpson, pointing to the door with a hasty gesture.
Nell made haste to obey, returning five minutes later very much out of breath, and rather curious concerning the message.
“Did it mean that the supplies for Camp’s Gulch had got on to the Roseneath cars by mistake? or what did it mean?” she asked, panting still from the haste she had made.
“I don’t know, and as it is not my business, I don’t care,” returned Miss Simpson, languidly.
“But I care; I want to know what everything means, or else how can I do my work properly?” Nell asked, with an inflection of dismay in her tone.