The Signalman

Hello!

Below there!

Hello!

Below!

Is, er...? Is there any path by which I may come down and speak with you?

Is there a path?

Thank you. I'll come down.

Ah! Here we are.

This must be a very lonesome spot to occupy, I should think.

I saw you from above.

I couldn't help watching.

Forgive the intrusion, but I felt I had to know how you...

That light, it's part of your charge, I should say, is it not?

Don't you know that it is?

You look at me as if you had some dread of me.

I assure you there's nothing to fear. Nothing at all to fear.

I am simply a man.

I have spent much of my life shut up within narrow limits.

I've been confined, but now I am free.

Why do you stare at me like that, man?

I was doubtful whether I'd seen you before.

Seen me? Where?

Where?

There?

Why?

What should I do there?

My good fellow, I was never there in my life.

You may swear it.

Yes, I...

I think I may.

Yes...

I'm sure I may.

It's cold.

It's not the work, sir, it's the responsibility.

I should have thought...

There's not enough work here to tax the muscles or brain of a child.

No, it's the responsibility, the duty.

You seem to have things pretty much at your command.

I believe I do, sir, but it never stops, do you see?

It's always there to be done. It's never finished.

And these months of late, I...

Yes.

There you are, sir, that's my work. Nothing of interest to anyone but myself.

I am interested.

So little to do with so much depending on it.

I wonder what you do with your mind, in between your duties, I mean.

You cannot spend your whole life reflecting on your responsibilities.

Well, yes, sir, I use my mind,

though there's precious little profit in it.

You see those books? I've been trying to teach myself mathematics.

Fractions, decimals, a little algebra.

- You're a scholar, then? - Indeed I'm not, sir, no.

No, I've no head for figures. I never had as a boy.

I make a poor figure as a mathematics scholar.

Then why?

Well, it's the time, sir.

I've all the time in the world to fill

and nothing to do with the knowledge when I have it.

Mathematics will do as well as anything else.

It serves to pass...

Is everything as it should be?

I believe so.

Tell me, do you spend all your hours of duty down here...

between these cold, dark walls?

I'm accustomed to it.

In the early days, I'd sometimes find slack time

to climb up into the sunlight,

but the work was always here to draw me down.

I'd listen for the bell, you see.

My face would be in the sun, but my mind would be down here in the dark

and the shadows.

I think the mind makes its own places, sir.

You speak - forgive me - like a man of education.

Oh, I was at one time, sir. A student of natural philosophy.

But what does that tell us? Nothing.

No motion without cause, a reason for everything.

I found myself dissatisfied with it.

Make yourself comfortable, sir.

You've been asleep.

Don't worry, you have no responsibilities here.

- Forgive me. - You have no call to be here.

And being here, there's no charge on you to do this or that.

Sleep or wake, nothing will suffer for it.

What brought you here?

I was drawn here.

Drawn? Yes, I...

- That bell... - Yes?

An accident on this stretch of the line must be a terrible thing.

In the tunnel, say.

The tunnel collision is the worst to be feared.

Your nightmares would go hard to equal it.

The wreckage becomes hideously compressed in the confined space.

If fire breaks out, the tunnel and its ventilating shafts become furnace flues.

You cannot see in the dark to get the wreckage and the bodies out.

The screams of the injured and dying

echo in a most...

persistent way.

It's the shape of the tunnel, you see, sir.

- But you can only do your duty. - Oh, yes, sir.

And you have all this.

This place of peace.

And you have no desires to go elsewhere?

I have not.

Then I almost believe I have met with a contented man.

Well, I must leave you now.

It's a fair walk to the inn.

I believe I used to be a contented man, sir.

- But I'm troubled, I'm troubled. - With what? What is your trouble?

It's difficult to impart, difficult to speak of,

but if you pay me another visit, I'll try to tell you.

I intend to make you another visit. When shall it be?

I go off duty early in the morning, sir,

but I'm on again at 10 o'clock tomorrow night.

- I shall come at 11. - Thank you, sir.

I'll show you my white light till you've found your way.

When you've found it,

don't... don't call out.

And when you come tomorrow night, don't call out.

Very well.

Let me ask you one question, sir.

What bid you say, "Hello, below there," this evening?

Heaven knows. I said something to that effect.

Not to that effect. Those are the very words, I know them well.

I said them, no doubt, because I saw you below.

You have no feeling that they were conveyed to you in any...

supernatural way?

No.

Then I'll wish you goodnight, sir, and Godspeed.

'The tunnel collision is the worst to be feared.'

'Don't call out.

'Don't call out.

'Don't call out.'

You see, I've not called out.

May I speak now?

By all means, sir.

Goodnight then,

and here's my hand.

Goodnight, sir, and here's mine.

I've made up my mind, sir,

you shall not have to ask me twice what troubles me.

I took you for someone else last night.

That troubles me.

That mistake?

That... someone else.

Who is it?

- I don't know. - Like me?

I don't know. I never saw his face.

The left arm is across the face and the right arm is waved.

Violently waved.

This way.

As if to say...

for God's sake, clear the way.

One foggy night...

I was sitting here,

watching the patterns in the fire...

and I heard a voice.

'Hello. Below there!'

Hello!

Below there!

Hello! Below there!

What's wrong? What's happened?

Come out! Come out!