" I hadn't improved much, but as this world is two-thirds bluff, I
made mine, and said I'd come, trusting to luck to be able to hold on.
I reached there one pleasant afternoon and the next morning went to
work. I must have had my rabbit's foot with me, because I was assigned
to a "Way Wire." I think if he had told me to tackle a "Quad," again, I
should have fainted. A "Way Wire," is one that runs along a railroad,
having offices cut in in all the small towns. There wasn't a town on the
whole string that had more than ten or fifteen messages a day, but the
aggregate of all the offices made up a very good day's work. Then again
I didn't have to handle any of those confounded "C. N. D." messages.
Clarke watched me closely and at the end of the first day he said my
work showed a marked improvement. You may rest assured I watched my P's
and Q's, and it wasn't long before I had the hang of the system and
could take my trick on a "Quad" with the best of them. Rheostats,
wheatstone bridges, polarized relays, pole changers, and ground switches
became as familiar to me as the old relay key and sounder had been.
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