There were two lamps over my
desk--one on each side of the bay window--and one was out in the
waiting-room. I also kept a lantern lighted to carry when I went out to
trains.
All through the early part of the night, I heard sounds of revelry and
carousing, accompanied by an occasional pistol shot, up in the town, but
about half past eleven these sounds ceased, and I was congratulating
myself that my night, would after all, be uneventful. About twelve
o'clock, however, there arose just outside the office the greatest
commotion I had ever heard in my life. I was eating my midnight lunch,
and had a piece of pie in my hand, when I heard the tramp of many feet
on the platform. It sounded like a regiment of infantry, and in a
minute there came the report of a shot, and with a crash out went one of
my lights, a shower of glass falling on the table. Before I could
collect myself there came another shot and smash out went the other
light. I dropped my pie and spasmodically grasped the table. The only
lights left were the one in the waiting-room and my lantern, which made
it in the office little better than total darkness.
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