e had barely enough mastery of the Morse alphabet to communicate
the routine messages relating to the railroad's business aided by the
intelligence of the conductors and engineers as to what was expected of
them. This was the first outside message that he had ever received,
and for a while it threatened to be too much for him, especially as the
absence of punctuation made it still more enigmatical. He faithfully
transcribed each letter as he made it out and then the agglomeration
read:

"Josiamn otkildho spitalat chatano ogabadl ywounded ecbower sox."

"Confound them smart operators at Louisville and Jefferson ville," he
grumbled, scanning the scrawl. "They never make letters plain, and don't
put in half of 'em, just to worrit country operators. I'd like to take
a club to 'em. There's no sort o' sense in sich sending. A Philadelphia
lawyer couldn't make nothing out of it. But I've got to or get a
cussing, and mebbe the bounce. I'll try it over again, and see if I can
separate it into words. Why in thunder can't they learn to put a space
be tween the words, and not jumble the letters all to gether in that
fool fashion?"

The next time he wrote it out:

"J. O. S. I am not kild Hospital at Chattanooga badly wounded E. C.
Bower sox."

"That begins to look like something," said he, wiping the sweat from his
forehead. "But who is J. O. S.? Nobody o' them initials in this neighbor
hood. Nor E. C. Bower. Deacon Klegg can't know any of 'em. Then, how's
the hospital badly wounded Bower? What's that about his socks? I'll have
to try it over again as soon as No. 7, freight, gets by."

After No. 7 had gotten away, he tackled the message again:

"No, that sixth letter's not an m, but an h. H is four dots, and m is
two dashes. It's specks in the paper that makes it look like an h. I'll
put in some letters where they're needed. Now let's see how it'll read:"

228 SI KLEGG.

"Josiah Nott killed Hospital at Chattanooga. Badly wounded E. C. Bower
sox."

"That seems to have more sense in it, but I don't know any Josiah Nott
in this country. Does it mean that he killed a man named Hospital at
Chattanooga, and badly wounded E. C. Bower in the socks? That don't seem
sense. I'll try it again."

The next time he succeeded in making it read:

"Josiah Nott killed. Hospital at Chattanooga. Badly wounded E. C.
Bower's ox."

"There, that's best I can do," he said, surveying the screed. "It'll
have to go that way, and let the Dea