The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-02-01

} tender, and half dozen cars were stove
: and piled up together, my fireman kill
| ed, and was dragged out from under
: the wreck, pretty badly scalded and
} used up. But my time hadn't come
, yet, and I was soon on the road again
| and-''
r Something on the track! Looks like
somebody waving lantern, but the
t sleet is so thick l can't rightly make
| out" shouted the fireman.
: John Lathrop sprang to his post,
made the whistle shrek like an impris-
oned and tortured fiend reversed the en-
CINE and whistled on brakes. But his
trained eye instantly saw that it would
be of no use-that he could not check
the Roadway of the heavy train in time
to avert running over the object, be it
what it might, for the track was SO mar
row and walled in by high embank-
ments that escape was impossible. Be-
sides, they were upon the ''ssmething
on the track before they were aware
of it, having just rounded a sharp curve.
"There is my home," gasped John
Lathrop, pointing out into the gloom,
"The Big Stony is just ahead, and-Oh,
my God! if the culvert should have
given away, and my boy have come to
give me warningP"
"Your home-your boy?" echoed the
tramp.
"Great Heaven! yes, and the strong
man became unnerved and robbed of
all decision.
sit is boy!" shouted the fireman.
"And, may God have mercy upon
him, believe it is your John!"
The passenger said nothing, but a
wild determination flashed from his
eyes as he arose, cimed out along the
side of the monster engine-a Jugger-
naut immense enough to have crush
ed hundreds at time beneath its pom
derous wheels. Then the middaylke
sunbeams of the headlight streamed
ont and made all plain to him, despite
the thick sleet and darkness.
He saw (and SILVER other than that
produced by the cold passed through
him) boy standing directly ahead in
the deep cut waving lantern, whose
blood-red globe shone like an evil eye.
Thoughts still at little distance, he SEEM
ed directly under foot and about to be
DRAGGED down and devoured.
He saved my life," muttered the
tramp from, between his tightly set
teeth, ''and I'll do as much for him if 1
can. Anyway, I'll try, and haven't
any body to mourn for me if l 60 I'M
der"
His resolution was desperate one
must be carried out without the delay |
of single moment, if at all. He swung
himself down upon the pilot, twisted
his feet within the iron bars, and ex-
tended his body ahead as rigid as if
carved from oak, and stretching his
hands still in advance.
1t was trying situation, one requir-
ing the greatest courage-a position no
one unused to feats of strength within
the arena could have sustained at all.
But he did, and bravely, and the en-
CINE rolled on nearer and nearer, and
the boy, suddenly becoming aware of
his danger a1d the impossibility of es-
cape, sank down upon the ties, and his
scream of mortal agony rang out loud
er than jar of wheels and Kissing of
steam.
Father! father! save me. Oh,
save mel"
Save him? John Lathrop was kneel-
ing on the floor of the cab, with his
hands raised in prayer, his face white
as snow, and working in the most ter
rible torture. The fireman had taken
his place at the lever, throttle, and
whistle, and the engine plunged with
increased speed upon a down grade to
grind into atoms all that dared oppose
its way.
1t was upon-over the boy! No,
heaven be praised; the arms of the
tramp had grasped, lifted, and dragged
him upon the pilot and to safety before
touched by the fire-breathing monster;
aud when it paused, quivering upon
the very brink of the crippled culvert,
John Lathrop was holding his brave
boy in his arms, hugging him to his
heart, and crying over him as woman.
Al % NJ
80 rolled into the station; and when
John Lalhrop told his wife
of how their boy had been saved, and
she sprang to the stranger and kissed
him from the impulse of her mothers
heart, there was no jealous frown upon
his brow.