The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-12-19

at her heart; for she was sure there had
been an answering light, and she could al
most picture tall form in dark blue cloth
ing, standing on the platform between the
two cars.
And now, while the October days grow
, cooler, and the glorious evenings longer,
Grandmother Crowninshield began to
grumble little at the disposition her dar-
ling evinced to pay SO many visits to Aunt
/ Betsy.
Its long walk for you, child" she
said, ''and it's through the cut, too.-
/ What if a railway train should come along
before you get out.''
so, grandmama, that'll never happen"
laughed Katie ''the railroad and | are
very good friends
'4ou ought to be- said grandmother.
Il never saw any living being care more
for dumb thing than you've always done
for that there train
But grandmother was nearer right than
Katie for only night or SO after that
1t must have been that Aunt Betsv's clock
was sIow-for Katie was in the very mid
die of the cut when her ears were suddenly
filled with the shrek and roar with which
the train dashed in at the upper end
Her heart beat quickly for moment,
but not with fear for, as she sprang light
Iy upon projecting rock that she had
often before noted as very available
perch, she gathered her f1uttering dress
more closely about her and exclaimed
There, I'm safe enough but to think
of it's coming SO near -
Near enough, indeed, and Katie leaned
back, hard against the crag behind her
for 1t seemed as if she could feel the breath
of the iron monster on her cheek. In one
hand she clutched more tightly the folds
of her shawl, and in the other she raise d
the lantern, as if its feeble star could be of
some protection, and then her grasp of it
grew suddenly very tight, indeed : for
/ leaning out little fom the platform of a
car, and looking forward, as if impatient
for the train to clear the cut, stood tall,
handsome, bearded man, in dark-blue
clothes, with lantern in his hand, and
his eager, watching, expectant face came
so very close to her own
/ 1t was like a flash of lightning but
Katie knew the face, and she knew also
that she herself had been seen, and she
I had even marked the swift paling of the
. bronzed visage as it recognized her and
! then swept OH in the darkness beyond.
''He was afraid l would be hurt she
thought and then she said aloud : ssRut
he must have seen how safe was ND here
on the rock. [ don't believe he swung his
lantern at our garden-gate tonight
( Aunt Betsy's house was some little dis
tance from the upper entrance, and the
approach to the latter was gloomy enough,
? the next night of her visit, even for one
who knew every inch of the way as well as
Katie did but her little lantern shone ont
cheerily against its bright reflector, throw
ing its radiance ahead, as if it were irving
to tell her: There, dear, that S it don't
be afraid, now, I'll show you the track ~
: She had not gone far, however, before the
granite walls brought to Eer ears, all the
way from the lower end and round the
curve, as if the cut had been a speaking
tube, the sound of voices that were evil
IDENTITY meant to be low and guarded There
were other sounds mingled with the voices.
''NA AA'tAS SOt'ANd IlOL OuG ItlOlG imam q
word or so here and there, but there was
something about it all that startled and
frightened her. At first she was halfin-
chned to turn and make the best of
her way back to Aunt Betsy's but that
seemed foolish, and Katie was really a
courageous little soul. She hid her lam
tern under her shawl, however, and stepped
linh
remember If there was not rock or hol-
low where she would be as safe from men
as she had been from the passing train.
She was very nearly through herself, be-
fore she could any way make out what it
all meant; ; but, as she paused in the deep
shadows of the rocks and peered timidly
out toward the now dull and muffied
sounds, with which the voices were no
longer mingled, broad quick CLEAN, as
from lantern suddenly shaded or extin-
guisheo, shot across the track not many
yards below, and then all was darkness
and silence
But that one moment of illumination had
revealed extraordinary things to the keen,
excited vision of Katie Crowninshield.
There were men, three or four, she could
not say just how many, but rough, fierce,
wild, and anxious looking, and before them
on the railway track, from which the rails
had been pried away just there, was CON
fused heap Of heavy granite boulders and
fragments. Katie understood it as clever
ly as if those men had taken her into their
confidence, and had told her in words.
1t was a plot to wreck the train
And now she was in the open air, be-
yOnd the upper entrance, and she could see
the peaceful light still shining from Aunt
to go there for help.
The train must be so very near