Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-08-23


aloud. go God have I come to this
in spite of everything %
And the memory of Dorothy Beers
and his sacred promise to her rose up in
his mind, as one sometimes remembers
promises made to the dead. In all the
wild, wide, reeling. rocking world of his
brain there was but one certainty. He
had lost Dorothy, his soft-stepping,
sweet-eyed, redeeming angel--the one
in all the world who loved and trusted
him most implicitly.
g" | don't deserve her. he thought,
scarce able to shape definite thought III
his chaotic mind; "but-if | had fallen
down dead bcfore-before l touched
that acclrsed stuff! She would have
believed in me then"
The fresh, cool night air on his brow
was SOLDERING him Il little the touch of
the cold river water cleared tho mists
of his clouded brain in some degree
He rose up, steadying himself by the
slender stem of young white birch tree
that grew close beside him, and looked
around
Hark clear whistle, half a mile
away, clcaving the silence like the call
of some sweet -throated bird.
1t was the express, whose plume of
lurid smoke spanned half a continent
the long, serpent-like train, glittering
with lights, and carrying a great eye of
fire i'll front, which nightly thundered
over the line of rails, and shot like a
meteor out of sight into the hush and
silence of the woods, westward bound.
The way train passed at 8, making Il
brief stoppage at Hurstley station be-
yond, mere wooden shed with Il plat
form on either side. Half an hour af-
terward slow and heavy freight train
followed it, running off on Il side track
toward the river shore until the express
should have safely passed. And it was
the special business of Israel Esmayne
to set the switch for the freight, and
subsequently replace it for the hurrying
express.
Had he done this?
With an awful doubt poisoning his
heart, he pressed his hands to his tenn
pies and tried to think. He had been
there-he could recall just how the
dewy rails looked, wet and glistening in
the satrlight. He had had the switch
key in his hand-that he could also re-
member. But was that before or after
the freight had switched off? He could
not remember whether the freight had
passed or not. He did not know wheth-
er he had locked the switch twice OF
once, or, good Heavens not at all.
The past was swaying vacuum, the fu-
turc strange and dream-like. Heclosed
his eyes, he pressed his temples as if
either hand had been Il vice of iron, in
the wild, agonizing effort to recall the
last half hour.
so God" he groaned aloud, as he
threw himself on his face in the wet
grass, "am l going mad @
Something hard struck against his
breast-bone as nc flung himself down
it was the fatal flask. He tore it out,
half full of dark red poison, and dashed
it passionately into the bushes. 1t was
that--that that had done all the mis-
chief
go Heavenly Father!' he cried aloud,
in his great anguish, ''if it pleases
Thee to avert from me this awful crime
of murder done thousandfold-and
naught but one of Thy miracles can
avert it now-I swear before Thy pave
ment of stars to touch that devils broth
no more O God, hear me! o Christ,
save me y ....- H
The earth beneath his groveling breast
thrilled and quivered as the express
train flew over the rails, and Israel Es-
mayne held his breath, momentarily
expecting the awful crash which should
stain his soul with the eternal brand of
Cain.
Hush An owl hooting afar off in
the woods, the cry of some sad-voiced
night bird overhead, and then-another
whistle, clear and CHEEKY. The express
had passed through Hurstley-passed
through safe and sound And Israel
Esmavne staggered to his feet, gazed
around him IN instant, clutching vague
ly at the air, and then fell unconscious
"Uncle, he is coming to. Oh, uncle,
| knew k,sctU that he was not dead !"
And the soft eyes of Dorothy Beers
were the first thing Israel Esmayne saw
as his soul came out of the world of
shadows and oblivion, with old Jonathan
leaning on his cane just beyond.
"Tell me, Dotty,' he gasped, 81 how
was it? The-the switches ?"
"It was my girl did it," said the old
man. "She come by, and she heard
the freight whistlin', and she see the
switches wasn't right, nor no signal, nor
nothin'. Something's happened says
my girl. 'Israel's been took i'll, or
dead, says she. And there lay the key
in the middle of the track, and she
catches it up, and she unlocks the
switches-you showed her how to do it