{"id":399,"date":"2016-10-26T21:03:41","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T21:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/ivytech-engl206-master\/?post_type=chapter&p=399"},"modified":"2016-11-10T23:28:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T23:28:13","slug":"the-signal-man-by-charles-dickens","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-introliterature\/chapter\/the-signal-man-by-charles-dickens\/","title":{"raw":"Charles Dickens, \"The Signal-Man,\" 1866","rendered":"Charles Dickens, “The Signal-Man,” 1866"},"content":{"raw":"\u201cHalloa! Below there!\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all.\r\n\r\n\u201cHalloa! Below!\u201d\r\n\r\nFrom looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him.\r\n\r\n\u201cIs there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went by.\r\n\r\nI repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called down to him, \u201cAll right!\u201d and made for that point. There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path notched out, which I followed.\r\n\r\nThe cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the path.\r\n\r\nWhen I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and that left elbow rested on his right hand, crossed over his breast. His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness that I stopped a moment, wondering at it.\r\n\r\nI resumed my downward way, and stepping out upon the level of the railroad, and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.\r\n\r\nBefore he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.\r\n\r\nThis was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the terms I used; for, besides that I am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.\r\n\r\nHe directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel\u2019s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and then looked it me.\r\n\r\nThat light was part of his charge? Was it not?\r\n\r\nHe answered in a low voice,\u2014\u201cDon\u2019t you know it is?\u201d\r\n\r\nThe monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind.\r\n\r\nIn my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought to flight.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou look at me,\u201d I said, forcing a smile, \u201cas if you had a dread of me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI was doubtful,\u201d he returned, \u201cwhether I had seen you before.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe pointed to the red light he had looked at.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere?\u201d I said.\r\n\r\nIntently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), \u201cYes.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cMy good fellow, what should I do there? However, be that as it may, I never was there, you may swear.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI think I may,\u201d he rejoined. \u201cYes; I am sure I may.\u201d\r\n\r\nHis manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my remarks with readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual work\u2014 manual labour\u2014he had next to none. To change that signal, to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then, was all he had to do under that head. Regarding those many long and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down here,\u2014if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him when on duty always to remain in that channel of damp air, and could he never rise into the sunshine from between those high stone walls? Why, that depended upon times and circumstances. Under some conditions there would be less upon the Line than under others, and the same held good as to certain hours of the day and night. In bright weather, he did choose occasions for getting a little above these lower shadows; but, being at all times liable to be called by his electric bell, and at such times listening for it with redoubled anxiety, the relief was less than I would suppose.\r\n\r\nHe took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic instrument with its dial, face, and needles, and the little bell of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed that instances of slight incongruity in such wise would rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any great railway staff. He had been, when young (if I could believe it, sitting in that hut,\u2014he scarcely could), a student of natural philosophy, and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused his opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon it. It was far too late to make another.\r\n\r\nAll that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with his grave dark regards divided between me and the fire. He threw in the word, \u201cSir,\u201d from time to time, and especially when he referred to his youth,\u2014as though to request me to understand that he claimed to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. Once he had to stand without the door, and display a flag as a train passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. In the discharge of his duties, I observed him to be remarkably exact and vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and remaining silent until what he had to do was done.\r\n\r\nIn a word, I should have set this man down as one of the safest of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell when it did not<\/i> ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light near the mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions, he came back to the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, without being able to define, when we were so far asunder.\r\n\r\nSaid I, when I rose to leave him, \u201cYou almost make me think that I have met with a contented man.\u201d\r\n\r\n(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him on.)\r\n\r\n\u201cI believe I used to be so,\u201d he rejoined, in the low voice in which he had first spoken; \u201cbut I am troubled, sir, I am troubled.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe would have recalled the words if he could. He had said them, however, and I took them up quickly.\r\n\r\n\u201cWith what? What is your trouble?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult to speak of. If ever you make me another visit, I will try to tell you.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say, when shall it be?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again at ten to- morrow night, sir.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI will come at eleven.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe thanked me, and went out at the door with me. \u201cI\u2019ll show my white light, sir,\u201d he said, in his peculiar low voice, \u201ctill you have found the way up. When you have found it, don\u2019t call out! And when you are at the top, don\u2019t call out!\u201d\r\n\r\nHis manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said no more than, \u201cVery well.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd when you come down to-morrow night, don\u2019t call out! Let me ask you a parting question. What made you cry, \u2018Halloa! Below there!\u2019 to-night?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cHeaven knows,\u201d said I. \u201cI cried something to that effect\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNot to that effect, sir. Those were the very words. I know them well.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAdmit those were the very words. I said them, no doubt, because I saw you below.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cFor no other reason?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat other reason could I possibly have?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural way?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe wished me good-night, and held up his light. I walked by the side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation of a train coming behind me) until I found the path. It was easier to mount than to descend, and I got back to my inn without any adventure.\r\n\r\nPunctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first notch of the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking eleven. He was waiting for me at the bottom, with his white light on. \u201cI have not called out,\u201d I said, when we came close together; \u201cmay I speak now?\u201d \u201cBy all means, sir.\u201d \u201cGood-night, then, and here\u2019s my hand.\u201d \u201cGood-night, sir, and here\u2019s mine.\u201d With that we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed the door, and sat down by the fire.\r\n\r\n\u201cI have made up my mind, sir,\u201d he began, bending forward as soon as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a little above a whisper, \u201cthat you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles me. I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles me.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cThat mistake?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. That some one else.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWho is it?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cLike me?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t know. I never saw the face. The left arm is across the face, and the right arm is waved,\u2014violently waved. This way.\u201d\r\n\r\nI followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of an arm gesticulating, with the utmost passion and vehemence, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOne moonlight night,\u201d said the man, \u201cI was sitting here, when I heard a voice cry, \u2018Halloa! Below there!\u2019 I started up, looked from that door, and saw this Some one else standing by the red light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, \u2018Look out! Look out!\u2019 And then again, \u2018Halloa! Below there! Look out!\u2019 I caught up my lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, \u2018What\u2019s wrong? What has happened? Where?\u2019 It stood just outside the blackness of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cInto the tunnel?\u201d said I.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred yards. I stopped, and held my lamp above my head, and saw the figures of the measured distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling through the arch. I ran out again faster than I had run in (for I had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the iron ladder to the gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and ran back here. I telegraphed both ways, \u2018An alarm has been given. Is anything wrong?\u2019 The answer came back, both ways, \u2018All well.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nResisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of sight; and how that figures, originating in disease of the delicate nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by experiments upon themselves. \u201cAs to an imaginary cry,\u201d said I, \u201cdo but listen for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak so low, and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat was all very well, he returned, after we had sat listening for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind and the wires,\u2014 he who so often passed long winter nights there, alone and watching. But he would beg to remark that he had not finished.\r\n\r\nI asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching my arm, -\r\n\r\n\u201cWithin six hours after the Appearance, the memorable accident on this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure had stood.\u201d\r\n\r\nA disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable coincidence, calculated deeply to impress his mind. But it was unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure I must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that he was going to bring the objection to bear upon me), men of common sense did not allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary calculations of life.\r\n\r\nHe again begged to remark that he had not finished.\r\n\r\nI again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis,\u201d he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing over his shoulder with hollow eyes, \u201cwas just a year ago. Six or seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at the door, looked towards the red light, and saw the spectre again.\u201d He stopped, with a fixed look at me.\r\n\r\n\u201cDid it cry out?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. It was silent.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cDid it wave its arm?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNo. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before the face. Like this.\u201d\r\n\r\nOnce more I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs.\r\n\r\n\u201cDid you go up to it?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly because it had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight was above me, and the ghost was gone.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut nothing followed? Nothing came of this?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice giving a ghastly nod each time:-\r\n\r\n\u201cThat very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands and heads, and something waved. I saw it just in time to signal the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, and, as I went along, heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and was brought in here, and laid down on this floor between us.\u201d\r\n\r\nInvoluntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards at which he pointed to himself.\r\n\r\n\u201cTrue, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you.\u201d\r\n\r\nI could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long lamenting wail.\r\n\r\nHe resumed. \u201cNow, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled. The spectre came back a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, now and again, by fits and starts.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAt the light?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAt the Danger-light.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat does it seem to do?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that former gesticulation of, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u201d\r\n\r\nThen he went on. \u201cI have no peace or rest for it. It calls to me, for many minutes together, in an agonised manner, \u2018Below there! Look out! Look out!\u2019 It stands waving to me. It rings my little bell\u2014\u201d\r\n\r\nI caught at that. \u201cDid it ring your bell yesterday evening when I was here, and you went to the door?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cTwice.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhy, see,\u201d said I, \u201chow your imagination misleads you. My eyes were on the bell, and my ears were open to the bell, and if I am a living man, it did not<\/i> ring at those times. No, nor at any other time, except when it was rung in the natural course of physical things by the station communicating with you.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe shook his head. \u201cI have never made a mistake as to that yet, sir. I have never confused the spectre\u2019s ring with the man\u2019s. The ghost\u2019s ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives from nothing else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to the eye. I don\u2019t wonder that you failed to hear it. But I heard it.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnd did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked out?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was<\/i> there.\u201d\u2019\r\n\r\n\u201cBoth times?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe repeated firmly: \u201cBoth times.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWill you come to the door with me, and look for it now?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe bit his under lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he stood in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal mouth of the tunnel. There were the high, wet stone walls of the cutting. There were the stars above them.\r\n\r\n\u201cDo you see it?\u201d I asked him, taking particular note of his face. His eyes were prominent and strained, but not very much more so, perhaps, than my own had been when I had directed them earnestly towards the same spot.\r\n\r\n\u201cNo,\u201d he answered. \u201cIt is not there.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAgreed,\u201d said I.\r\n\r\nWe went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. I was thinking how best to improve this advantage, if it might be called one, when he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so assuming that there could be no serious question of fact between us, that I felt myself placed in the weakest of positions.\r\n\r\n\u201cBy this time you will fully understand, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cthat what troubles me so dreadfully is the question, What does the spectre mean?\u201d\r\n\r\nI was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is its warning against?\u201d he said, ruminating, with his eyes on the fire, and only by times turning them on me. \u201cWhat is the danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging somewhere on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not to be doubted this third time, after what has gone before. But surely this is a cruel haunting of me. What can I do?\u201d\r\n\r\nHe pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his heated forehead.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf I telegraph Danger, on either side of me, or on both, I can give no reason for it,\u201d he went on, wiping the palms of his hands. \u201cI should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I was mad. This is the way it would work,\u2014Message: \u2018Danger! Take care!\u2019 Answer: \u2018What Danger? Where?\u2019 Message: \u2018Don\u2019t know. But, for God\u2019s sake, take care!\u2019 They would displace me. What else could they do?\u201d\r\n\r\nHis pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible responsibility involving life.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen it first stood under the Danger-light,\u201d he went on, putting his dark hair back from his head, and drawing his hands outward across and across his temples in an extremity of feverish distress, \u201cwhy not tell me where that accident was to happen,\u2014if it must happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,\u2014if it could have been averted? When on its second coming it hid its face, why not tell me, instead, \u2018She is going to die. Let them keep her at home\u2019? If it came, on those two occasions, only to show me that its warnings were true, and so to prepare me for the third, why not warn me plainly now? And I, Lord help me! A mere poor signal-man on this solitary station! Why not go to somebody with credit to be believed, and power to act?\u201d\r\n\r\nWhen I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor man\u2019s sake, as well as for the public safety, what I had to do for the time was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction. He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post as the night advanced began to make larger demands on his attention: and I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through the night, but he would not hear of it.\r\n\r\nThat I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that I should have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that either.\r\n\r\nBut what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration how ought I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I had proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in a subordinate position, still he held a most important trust, and would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the chances of his continuing to execute it with precision?\r\n\r\nUnable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous in my communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the Company, without first being plain with himself and proposing a middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to return accordingly.\r\n\r\nNext evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, and it would then be time to go to my signal-man\u2019s box.\r\n\r\nBefore pursuing my stroll, I stepped to the brink, and mechanically looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm.\r\n\r\nThe nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, and that there was a little group of other men, standing at a short distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of some wooden supports and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger than a bed.\r\n\r\nWith an irresistible sense that something was wrong,\u2014with a flashing self-reproachful fear that fatal mischief had come of my leaving the man there, and causing no one to be sent to overlook or correct what he did,\u2014I descended the notched path with all the speed I could make.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat is the matter?\u201d I asked the men.\r\n\r\n\u201cSignal-man killed this morning, sir.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNot the man belonging to that box?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes, sir.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cNot the man I know?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYou will recognise him, sir, if you knew him,\u201d said the man who spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head, and raising an end of the tarpaulin, \u201cfor his face is quite composed.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cO, how did this happen, how did this happen?\u201d I asked, turning from one to another as the hut closed in again.\r\n\r\n\u201cHe was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his work better. But somehow he was not clear of the outer rail. It was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his back was towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe man, who wore a rough dark dress, stepped back to his former place at the mouth of the tunnel.\r\n\r\n\u201cComing round the curve in the tunnel, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cI saw him at the end, like as if I saw him down a perspective-glass. There was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As he didn\u2019t seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could call.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cI said, \u2018Below there! Look out! Look out! For God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nI started.\r\n\r\n\u201cAh! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off calling to him. I put this arm before my eyes not to see, and I waved this arm to the last; but it was no use.\u201d\r\n\r\nWithout prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point out the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, not only the words which the unfortunate Signal-man had repeated to me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself\u2014not he\u2014had attached, and that only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he had imitated.\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n\r\nCharles John Huffam Dickens<\/b> (7 February 1812\u00a0\u2013 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.\u00a0His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.\r\n\r\nBorn in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education, and other social reforms.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n ","rendered":"

\u201cHalloa! Below there!\u201d<\/p>\n

When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalloa! Below!\u201d<\/p>\n

From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while the train went by.<\/p>\n

I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he seemed to regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his rolled-up flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called down to him, \u201cAll right!\u201d and made for that point. There, by dint of looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path notched out, which I followed.<\/p>\n

The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the path.<\/p>\n

When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by which the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and that left elbow rested on his right hand, crossed over his breast. His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness that I stopped a moment, wondering at it.<\/p>\n

I resumed my downward way, and stepping out upon the level of the railroad, and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.<\/p>\n

Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched him. Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.<\/p>\n

This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the terms I used; for, besides that I am not happy in opening any conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.<\/p>\n

He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the tunnel\u2019s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something were missing from it, and then looked it me.<\/p>\n

That light was part of his charge? Was it not?<\/p>\n

He answered in a low voice,\u2014\u201cDon\u2019t you know it is?\u201d<\/p>\n

The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind.<\/p>\n

In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the monstrous thought to flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at me,\u201d I said, forcing a smile, \u201cas if you had a dread of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doubtful,\u201d he returned, \u201cwhether I had seen you before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to the red light he had looked at.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy good fellow, what should I do there? However, be that as it may, I never was there, you may swear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I may,\u201d he rejoined. \u201cYes; I am sure I may.\u201d<\/p>\n

His manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my remarks with readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual work\u2014 manual labour\u2014he had next to none. To change that signal, to trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then, was all he had to do under that head. Regarding those many long and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down here,\u2014if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him when on duty always to remain in that channel of damp air, and could he never rise into the sunshine from between those high stone walls? Why, that depended upon times and circumstances. Under some conditions there would be less upon the Line than under others, and the same held good as to certain hours of the day and night. In bright weather, he did choose occasions for getting a little above these lower shadows; but, being at all times liable to be called by his electric bell, and at such times listening for it with redoubled anxiety, the relief was less than I would suppose.<\/p>\n

He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an official book in which he had to make certain entries, a telegraphic instrument with its dial, face, and needles, and the little bell of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he would excuse the remark that he had been well educated, and (I hoped I might say without offence) perhaps educated above that station, he observed that instances of slight incongruity in such wise would rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any great railway staff. He had been, when young (if I could believe it, sitting in that hut,\u2014he scarcely could), a student of natural philosophy, and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused his opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon it. It was far too late to make another.<\/p>\n

All that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with his grave dark regards divided between me and the fire. He threw in the word, \u201cSir,\u201d from time to time, and especially when he referred to his youth,\u2014as though to request me to understand that he claimed to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. Once he had to stand without the door, and display a flag as a train passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. In the discharge of his duties, I observed him to be remarkably exact and vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and remaining silent until what he had to do was done.<\/p>\n

In a word, I should have set this man down as one of the safest of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell when it did not<\/i> ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light near the mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions, he came back to the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, without being able to define, when we were so far asunder.<\/p>\n

Said I, when I rose to leave him, \u201cYou almost make me think that I have met with a contented man.\u201d<\/p>\n

(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him on.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I used to be so,\u201d he rejoined, in the low voice in which he had first spoken; \u201cbut I am troubled, sir, I am troubled.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would have recalled the words if he could. He had said them, however, and I took them up quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith what? What is your trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, very difficult to speak of. If ever you make me another visit, I will try to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say, when shall it be?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again at ten to- morrow night, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will come at eleven.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thanked me, and went out at the door with me. \u201cI\u2019ll show my white light, sir,\u201d he said, in his peculiar low voice, \u201ctill you have found the way up. When you have found it, don\u2019t call out! And when you are at the top, don\u2019t call out!\u201d<\/p>\n

His manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said no more than, \u201cVery well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you come down to-morrow night, don\u2019t call out! Let me ask you a parting question. What made you cry, \u2018Halloa! Below there!\u2019 to-night?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeaven knows,\u201d said I. \u201cI cried something to that effect\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot to that effect, sir. Those were the very words. I know them well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdmit those were the very words. I said them, no doubt, because I saw you below.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor no other reason?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat other reason could I possibly have?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any supernatural way?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wished me good-night, and held up his light. I walked by the side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation of a train coming behind me) until I found the path. It was easier to mount than to descend, and I got back to my inn without any adventure.<\/p>\n

Punctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first notch of the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking eleven. He was waiting for me at the bottom, with his white light on. \u201cI have not called out,\u201d I said, when we came close together; \u201cmay I speak now?\u201d \u201cBy all means, sir.\u201d \u201cGood-night, then, and here\u2019s my hand.\u201d \u201cGood-night, sir, and here\u2019s mine.\u201d With that we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed the door, and sat down by the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have made up my mind, sir,\u201d he began, bending forward as soon as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a little above a whisper, \u201cthat you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles me. I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat mistake?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. That some one else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I never saw the face. The left arm is across the face, and the right arm is waved,\u2014violently waved. This way.\u201d<\/p>\n

I followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of an arm gesticulating, with the utmost passion and vehemence, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne moonlight night,\u201d said the man, \u201cI was sitting here, when I heard a voice cry, \u2018Halloa! Below there!\u2019 I started up, looked from that door, and saw this Some one else standing by the red light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, \u2018Look out! Look out!\u2019 And then again, \u2018Halloa! Below there! Look out!\u2019 I caught up my lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, \u2018What\u2019s wrong? What has happened? Where?\u2019 It stood just outside the blackness of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInto the tunnel?\u201d said I.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred yards. I stopped, and held my lamp above my head, and saw the figures of the measured distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling through the arch. I ran out again faster than I had run in (for I had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the iron ladder to the gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and ran back here. I telegraphed both ways, \u2018An alarm has been given. Is anything wrong?\u2019 The answer came back, both ways, \u2018All well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I showed him how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of sight; and how that figures, originating in disease of the delicate nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by experiments upon themselves. \u201cAs to an imaginary cry,\u201d said I, \u201cdo but listen for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak so low, and to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was all very well, he returned, after we had sat listening for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind and the wires,\u2014 he who so often passed long winter nights there, alone and watching. But he would beg to remark that he had not finished.<\/p>\n

I asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching my arm, –<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin six hours after the Appearance, the memorable accident on this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure had stood.\u201d<\/p>\n

A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable coincidence, calculated deeply to impress his mind. But it was unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure I must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that he was going to bring the objection to bear upon me), men of common sense did not allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary calculations of life.<\/p>\n

He again begged to remark that he had not finished.<\/p>\n

I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis,\u201d he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing over his shoulder with hollow eyes, \u201cwas just a year ago. Six or seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at the door, looked towards the red light, and saw the spectre again.\u201d He stopped, with a fixed look at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it cry out?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. It was silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it wave its arm?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before the face. Like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once more I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you go up to it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly because it had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight was above me, and the ghost was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut nothing followed? Nothing came of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice giving a ghastly nod each time:-<\/p>\n

\u201cThat very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands and heads, and something waved. I saw it just in time to signal the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, and, as I went along, heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and was brought in here, and laid down on this floor between us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Involuntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards at which he pointed to himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you.\u201d<\/p>\n

I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long lamenting wail.<\/p>\n

He resumed. \u201cNow, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled. The spectre came back a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, now and again, by fits and starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the light?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the Danger-light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does it seem to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that former gesticulation of, \u201cFor God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he went on. \u201cI have no peace or rest for it. It calls to me, for many minutes together, in an agonised manner, \u2018Below there! Look out! Look out!\u2019 It stands waving to me. It rings my little bell\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

I caught at that. \u201cDid it ring your bell yesterday evening when I was here, and you went to the door?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, see,\u201d said I, \u201chow your imagination misleads you. My eyes were on the bell, and my ears were open to the bell, and if I am a living man, it did not<\/i> ring at those times. No, nor at any other time, except when it was rung in the natural course of physical things by the station communicating with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He shook his head. \u201cI have never made a mistake as to that yet, sir. I have never confused the spectre\u2019s ring with the man\u2019s. The ghost\u2019s ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives from nothing else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to the eye. I don\u2019t wonder that you failed to hear it. But I heard it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked out?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was<\/i> there.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth times?\u201d<\/p>\n

He repeated firmly: \u201cBoth times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you come to the door with me, and look for it now?\u201d<\/p>\n

He bit his under lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he stood in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal mouth of the tunnel. There were the high, wet stone walls of the cutting. There were the stars above them.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you see it?\u201d I asked him, taking particular note of his face. His eyes were prominent and strained, but not very much more so, perhaps, than my own had been when I had directed them earnestly towards the same spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he answered. \u201cIt is not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgreed,\u201d said I.<\/p>\n

We went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. I was thinking how best to improve this advantage, if it might be called one, when he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so assuming that there could be no serious question of fact between us, that I felt myself placed in the weakest of positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy this time you will fully understand, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cthat what troubles me so dreadfully is the question, What does the spectre mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

I was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is its warning against?\u201d he said, ruminating, with his eyes on the fire, and only by times turning them on me. \u201cWhat is the danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging somewhere on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not to be doubted this third time, after what has gone before. But surely this is a cruel haunting of me. What can I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his heated forehead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I telegraph Danger, on either side of me, or on both, I can give no reason for it,\u201d he went on, wiping the palms of his hands. \u201cI should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I was mad. This is the way it would work,\u2014Message: \u2018Danger! Take care!\u2019 Answer: \u2018What Danger? Where?\u2019 Message: \u2018Don\u2019t know. But, for God\u2019s sake, take care!\u2019 They would displace me. What else could they do?\u201d<\/p>\n

His pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible responsibility involving life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it first stood under the Danger-light,\u201d he went on, putting his dark hair back from his head, and drawing his hands outward across and across his temples in an extremity of feverish distress, \u201cwhy not tell me where that accident was to happen,\u2014if it must happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,\u2014if it could have been averted? When on its second coming it hid its face, why not tell me, instead, \u2018She is going to die. Let them keep her at home\u2019? If it came, on those two occasions, only to show me that its warnings were true, and so to prepare me for the third, why not warn me plainly now? And I, Lord help me! A mere poor signal-man on this solitary station! Why not go to somebody with credit to be believed, and power to act?\u201d<\/p>\n

When I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor man\u2019s sake, as well as for the public safety, what I had to do for the time was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of reality or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded far better than in the attempt to reason him out of his conviction. He became calm; the occupations incidental to his post as the night advanced began to make larger demands on his attention: and I left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay through the night, but he would not hear of it.<\/p>\n

That I more than once looked back at the red light as I ascended the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that I should have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that either.<\/p>\n

But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration how ought I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I had proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in a subordinate position, still he held a most important trust, and would I (for instance) like to stake my own life on the chances of his continuing to execute it with precision?<\/p>\n

Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something treacherous in my communicating what he had told me to his superiors in the Company, without first being plain with himself and proposing a middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take his opinion. A change in his time of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me, and he would be off an hour or two after sunrise, and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to return accordingly.<\/p>\n

Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to enjoy it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an hour, I said to myself, half an hour on and half an hour back, and it would then be time to go to my signal-man\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

Before pursuing my stroll, I stepped to the brink, and mechanically looked down, from the point from which I had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a man, with his left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his right arm.<\/p>\n

The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for in a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, and that there was a little group of other men, standing at a short distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against its shaft, a little low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of some wooden supports and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger than a bed.<\/p>\n

With an irresistible sense that something was wrong,\u2014with a flashing self-reproachful fear that fatal mischief had come of my leaving the man there, and causing no one to be sent to overlook or correct what he did,\u2014I descended the notched path with all the speed I could make.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the matter?\u201d I asked the men.<\/p>\n

\u201cSignal-man killed this morning, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the man belonging to that box?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the man I know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will recognise him, sir, if you knew him,\u201d said the man who spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head, and raising an end of the tarpaulin, \u201cfor his face is quite composed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cO, how did this happen, how did this happen?\u201d I asked, turning from one to another as the hut closed in again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in England knew his work better. But somehow he was not clear of the outer rail. It was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his back was towards her, and she cut him down. That man drove her, and was showing how it happened. Show the gentleman, Tom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man, who wore a rough dark dress, stepped back to his former place at the mouth of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing round the curve in the tunnel, sir,\u201d he said, \u201cI saw him at the end, like as if I saw him down a perspective-glass. There was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As he didn\u2019t seem to take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when we were running down upon him, and called to him as loud as I could call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Below there! Look out! Look out! For God\u2019s sake, clear the way!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I started.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off calling to him. I put this arm before my eyes not to see, and I waved this arm to the last; but it was no use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point out the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, not only the words which the unfortunate Signal-man had repeated to me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself\u2014not he\u2014had attached, and that only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he had imitated.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Charles John Huffam Dickens<\/b> (7 February 1812\u00a0\u2013 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.\u00a0His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity.<\/p>\n

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors’ prison. Despite his lack of formal education, he edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children’s rights, education, and other social reforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div>