The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-09-25

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her stature. Her face glowered close
down upon his now, still with the same
fell expression. s-.s .,.ssiyi.
"The only thing could have done.' -
went on Jack, in describing the scene
to me-and just here he shall speak for
himself; '' the only means by which 1
might perhaps have made her relax
her hold would have been by aiming
one or two tremendous blows with my
right fist (Which was at liberty at her
face. Had it been q mans there would
have been no hesitation; had it been in
deed that of an ordinary woman. at
such q pass I should not have hesitated
10 strike her, to stun her, if L could. by
any means; but that face, that seemed
to know so well, yet SO mysteriously, 1
could notraise my hand against it, and,
as my arm swung up with the first inn
pulse to deal her q blow, it fell helpless
by my side. Vain were my efforts to
get her hand away from my throat;
there was terrible swaying 10 and
| fro for minute or two, felt the grip
of the long fingers tightening, and my
self choking. Suddenly we fell, the
whole carriage seemed to be falling
there was fearful jerk or two, strange
ppheaving Of the floor, . tremendous
rattle and crash-I appeared to be
thrown headlong to some great distance.
and-an was darknessr' - - -
The termination Of that deadly strug-
gle was brought about in . manner as
marvellous aud unlocked for as, could
well have been imagined. u 80 IA
Some fifty souls, say, were travelling
in that train. all save one in perfect Sc
curity. Jacks life alone was in danger,
when, loi by one of those marvellous
condolences which do happen at times
in the supreme moments of existence,
the rescue came, but at the cost of
many life, which Just before would
have seemed worth treble the purchase
Of Jacks. =, Z -. -
At the very instant that his life
depended upon another tightening
| grip or two from the hand of .
maniac frightful catastrophe occurred
to the train. The tire Of an engine
wheel broke, and half 8 dozen carriages
were hurled down . steep embankment.
The scene that succeeded is, unhappily,
of too common an occurrence to need
Seven passengers were killed outright;
double that number slightly or badly
hurt; the; remainder escaping, as by q
miracle, with nothing else than se-
we're shaking. ....-.,-
My friend was among the shaken.
He had been thrown clear of the debris
on to a soft grassy spot, half bank. half
hedge; emphatically, his life was saved!
But what followed it was that which
caused the suffering, that wrought the
| fovrse Mo ho in 1onk
In the darkness of that soft autumn
night he strove, foremost among those
who had been spared, to render such
help as was possible to the less fortu-
nate. When the official assistance
came, and fires were set blazing to give
light, almost his first care was to try
and seek out his dangerous fellow
traveller. In the confusion, nobody was
prepared, Of course, to listen to Jacks
account of her, even had he been pre-
pared then to give it. She was not,
evidently, moving sbout among the
crowd; he assured himself of that; but
supposing her. like himself. to have es-
capped injury (and he concluded that
this was flkely), might she not, with
the stealth and cunning incidental to
her malady, be hiding, and by thus fur
ther eluding detection, become, with
her homicidal mania, IS dangerous to
the community at large as some fierce.
wild animal would beP The thought
made him shudder; he must lose no
time in assuring himself Of her fate. .
As soon as an approach to order
could be evolved out of that awful
chaos, he had convinced himself that
she was not among the injured. Then
he turned to the dead. His eyes fell
upon several mutilated and motionless
forms, which had been laid in an omin-
Gus row at the foot of one part of the
embankmcnt. Hers was not among
them; he could find no trace of her.
At length, as q sickly dawn was be-
ginning to make the search easier, he
endeayored to discover the spot where
the carriage he had occupied had fallen,
and to retrace his steps quite to the
rear of the train, by the way) to the
place where he found himself lying
after the catastrophe. .,---
BY this time he had made known
briefly to some officials that q woman
was missing who had been in the car
riage with him, and one or two of them
followed him in his quest. Presently
he reslizei pretty well whsrs he had
been thrown; he all but identified the
spot. Then he scrambled through the
hedge, and there, on the opposite side,
on the sloping bank Of q ditch, he be-
held, lying quite still, her dark, unmis-
taxable form. Sj''i---.
He ran forward, and, bending over
her and looking down upon the marble,
upturned face, saw at a glance that
there was nothing dangerous about her
now-those terrible eyes were closed
forever! Except for a slight wound on
one temple, whence a little blood had
trickled, and the distorted, but now
rigidly closed hand, which had been so
lately al his throat, she looked as calm
and minjured as If she were merely
sleeping, while death had restored for
brief period much of that beauty. the
traces of which had struck him when
her veil was first lifted.
One of the surgeons here came hurry
ing up in answer to q summons.
"Good heavens!" he exclaimed,
"here she is, then, at last! Why, she
earth did she manage itP'
WHO is sheP' inquired j ack. earliest
ly, with strange return of the Old,
You appear to know her. Pray tell me-"
20, one of our inmates; she got
away yesterday morning, no one knows
how, was the answer.
"You are from Longmoor. then.
How long has she been there? What
is her name" IT.,
twenty years, I believe; long before my
timo." .,..- r., =
And her nameP, ~
upon my word, at this moment, L
can hardly" went ,on the doctPJ1
one Of the pulseless .wris6 before him;
and with calm Visitation, which con-
trasted strongly With Jacks e2shest.
impetuous mannar- can -hsrdly re-
member. 1 think she was committed