# Weird Tales/Volume 36/Issue 2/It Happened to Me

From Weird Tales, Volume 36, Issue 2
It Happened to Me
THE GUARDIAN ANGEL
By SIGMOND MILLER
It's a long stretch between Jackson City and Logan, every bit of three hundred miles. The fast trains that come through here, if they're behind time, can easily build up a good speed and make the schedule, for it's a straight run. No need to slow down; no difficult bends and very few cross roads.
On this spring night the fog was unusually heavy. Engineer Timson pulled out his big watch. "On time," he said laconically.
I wiped my brow; I'm the fireman. "Kinda heavy fog t'night."
Timson grunted and busied himself at the controls. The huge panting locomotive got under way. Soon the click-clack of the wheels beat rhythmically and the crack Western Limited moved along at high speed.
For an hour neither of us said anything, but attended to our duties. We were making good time despite the fog. Suddenly Timson shouted out in a strange voice. "My eyes must be goin' back on me. Do yuh see what I see?"
I looked out of the cab and saw directly ahead and above what seemed to be nothing else but a silhouette of a black Angel. The wings were wide and black and the apparition rode the sky with the same speed as the train. "Almighty God!" I said in an awed whisper. "What is that!"
"Yuh see it too, don't yuh?"
I nodded.
"It looks like the Angel of Death," said Timson, his voice packed with fear.
"It's a warning!" I shouted, quite frightened. "Put on the brakes!"
The engineer needed no urging. The locomotive came to a quick halt.
Both of us got off. The apparition remained stationary in the sky. It moved or seemed to beckon. "It's trying to warn us. Maybe something wrong with the engine," I said.
We walked around the huge boiler tube examining the eccentric crank, the reversing links, the connecting rods, but found nothing wrong.
The figure in the sky remained where it was.
"Well, I'll be hanged!" I said with great relief.
"What yuh find?" asked the engineer walking over to me.
"It's just a moth stuck on the headlight Just threw a shadow in the sky like a movin' picture." I handed Timson the fluttering moth.
​"Yuh certainly scared the daylights outa me," said Timson, looking fascinatedly at the insect.
"Sure is one on us. Wait'll the boys hear this one."
"Let's get goin'. We're losin' time," said Timson, himself again.
"Wait a minute. Hear somethin'?"
Timson listened. "That surely sounds like water. That must be Chapman's Creek."
"Kinda loud for a little creek. Let's go see what it is."
"Short ten minutes a'ready. But we can take a quick look."
We followed the tracks down a hundred feet or so and suddenly the tracks disappeared into an expanse of water. The trestle over Chapman's Creek was gone. What was once a small stream was now a raging, roaring river, flooded by the heavy spring rains.
For a long time we stared down at it unbelievingly, then turned and looked at each other's pale faces. Silently, we walked back to the panting engine.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed.
* For Class A renewal records (books only) published between 1923 and 1963, check the Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database.
* For other renewal records of publications between 1922–1950, see the University of Pennsylvania copyright records.
* For all records since 1978, search the U.S. Copyright Office records.
Works published in 1941 could have had their copyright renewed in 1968 or 1969, i.e. between January 1st of the 27th year after publication or registration and December 31st of the 28th year. As this work's copyright was not renewed, it entered the public domain on January 1st, 1970.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
It is imperative that contributors ascertain that there is no evidence of a copyright renewal before using this license. Failure to do so will result in the deletion of the work as a copyright violation.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse