The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1879-09-11

man, and was as far beyond his as was
her stature. Her face glowered close
down upon his now, still with the same
! fell expression.
"The only thing I could have done, u
went on Jack, in describing the scene to
, me-and just here, he shall speak for
himself" only means by which ]
, might perhaps have made her relax her
hold would have been by aiming one
or two tremendous blows with my right
fist (Which was ut liberty at her face.
Had it been mans, there would have
been no hesitation; had it been indeed
) that of an ordinary woman, at such a
pass Ishould not have hesitated to strike
her, to stun her, if I could, by any
means; but that face, that l seemed to
know so well, yet so mysteriously, |
could not raise my hand against it, and,
rs my arm swung up with 'the first i'm
pulse to deal her Il blow, it fell helpless
by my side. Vain were my efforts to get
her hand away from my throat; there
was terrible swaying to and fro for Il
minute or two, l felt the grip of the long
fingers tightening, and myself choking.
Suddenly we fell, the whole carriage
seemed to he falling-there was fearful
jerk OF two, Il strange upheaving of the
floor, tremendous rattle and crash-1
appeared to be thrown headlong to some
great distance, and-all was darkness"
The termination of that deadly Strug-
gle was brought about in n manner rs
marvellous and unlocked for as could
well have been imagined.
Some fifty souls, say, were travelling
| {1,.,{ {,.,, oil nf
security. Jacks life alone was in dan
ger, when, 10! by one Of those marvellous
Condolences which do happen at times
in the supreme moments Of existence,
the rescue came, but ut the cost of many
seemed worth treble the price of Jacks.
At the very instant that his might
have depended upon another Tightening
grip or two from the hand of maniac
frightful catastrophe occurred to the
broke and half 4 dozen carriages were
hurled down 4 steep embankment. The
scene that succeeded is, unhappily, OF
TOO common IN occurrence to need more
than word of reference here. Seven
passengers were killed outright and
double that number slightly or badly
hurt, the remainder escaping, IS by Il
miracle, with nothing else than a severe
shaking.
Ny friend was among the shaken. He
had been thrown clear of the debris on
to Il 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
terrible change III Jack
In the darkness of that soft autumn
night he strove, foremost among those
who had been spared, to render such
help rs was possible to the less fortunate.
When the Official assistance came, and
fires were set blazing to give light, al
most his first care was to try and seek
out his dangerous fellow-traveler. In
the confusion nobody was prepared, of
course, to listen TO Jacks account OF p
her, even had he been prepared then to
give it. She was not, evidently, moving
about among the crowd ; he assured HIM
self of that; but supposing her, like him
self. to have escaped injury (and he con-
cluded that this was likely), might she
not, with the stealth and cunning incl
dental to her malady, be hiding, and be
thus further eluding detention, become.
with her homicidal mania, rs dangerous
to the community ut large us some fierce
wild animal would be? The thought
made him shudder; he must lose no time
in assuring himself OF her fate.
AS soon rs IN 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 eye fell upon several mu-
tiated and motionleSS forms, which hau
been laid in an ominous row at the foot
of one part Of the embankment. Hers
was not among them; he could find no
trace Of her.
At length, rs sfckly dawn was be-
ginning to make the search easier. he en-
deavorcd 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 catas-
trophe.
BY this time he had made known
briefly to some officials that 4 woman
was missing who had been in the
carriage with him, and one or two of
them followed him in his quest. Pres
emily he realized pretty we'll where he
had been thrown; he ali but identified
the spot. Then he scrambled through
the hedge, and there, on the opposite
side, on the sloping bank Of Il ditch, he
behcld, lying quite still, her dark, un-
mistakable form.
lie ran forward, and, bending over
her and looking down upon the marble,
up-turnCd face, saw ut glance that
there was nothing dangerous about her
now-tlose terrible eyes were closed fol-
ever. Except for slight wound on one
temple, whence little blood had trickled,
and the distorted but now rigidly closed
hand, which had been so lately at his
throat, she looked us calm and unln-
iured us 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 vail
WAS first lifted.
One of the surgeons here came hurry
Ing up, in answer to summons.
Good heavensm he exclaimed; there
she is, then, ut last! Why, she must
have been in the train. How on earth
did she manage it?"
WHO is she?" inquired Jack, earn
est!y, with 4 strange return of the old.
incXplicable sensation. "Who is she
You appear to know her. Pray tell me-"
oh, one of our inmates; she got away
Yesterday morning; no ona knows how"
was the answer.
You are from Longmoor, t'len. How
long has she been there9 What is her
name?"
"Oh, she has been there upward OF
twenty years, l believe; long before my
time"
"And her name?"
Upon my word. at this moment,
can hardly" went on the doctor, me-
chanically passing his fingers over one
of the pulseless wrists before him, and