In the telegraph office the operator was still having trouble with the querulous gentleman, but the President went to the desk to write his message, shutting his ears to the shrill voice of the gadfly.
"But, sir, I must ah—protest. I distinctly heard Mr. ah—Brockway tell you to send anything I desired, and I demand that you send this; it was part of the ah—stipulation, sir!"
"This" was a message of five hundred-odd words to the local railway agent in the small town where Mr. Jordan had purchased his ticket, setting forth his grievance at length; and the operator naturally demurred. While he was trying to persuade the pertinacious gentleman to cut the jeremiad down to a reasonable length, the President finished his telegram to his daughter. It was curt and incisive.
"To Miss Gertrude Vennor,
"On Train 51."If you do not return this forenoon we shall not wait for you.
"Francis Vennor."
The operator took it, and the President glanced at his watch.
"Can you catch that train at Beaver Brook?" he inquired.
"Yes, just about."
"Do it, then, at once. Excuse me—" to the gadfly—"this is very important, and you have all day for your business."
The brusque interruption started the fountain of protests afresh, but the operator turned away and sat down to his instrument. Beaver Brook answered its call promptly, and the message to Miss Vennor clicked swiftly through the sounder.
For a quarter of an hour or more, Brockway's friend in the Golden office had been neglecting his work and listening intently to the irrelevant chattering of his sounder. He heard Denver call Beaver Brook, and when the station in the canyon answered, he promptly grounded the wire and caught up his pen. The effect of this manœuvre was to short-circuit that particular wire at Golden, cutting off all stations beyond; but this the Denver operator could not know. As a result, the President's telegram got no farther than Golden, and Brockway's friend took it down as it was sent. At the final word he opened the wire again in time to hear Beaver Brook swear at the prolonged "break," and ask Denver what was wanted.