Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1882-05-31
| must 90 10 night, danger or not.
crro,v NOV risk Il If Won canp

must go 10 night, danger or not.
Surely may risk it if you canv
I have no one to think Of but N.Y.
SELF The words were almost lost in
the wind. You have Kate, and it is
my duty to go, not yours And the
brakeman regretiully TUNED away
Only a moment did Ballou gaze after
his lantern, as it went Pickering down
the wet platform, and then as the short |
train started he stepped into the ca
boose, and l leaned from R,y seat 10
watch Tom swing up on the little iron
ladder and mount 10 the top.
Just exactly how 1t all happened TO-
day do not know, bu! at the bottom
of The second grade The earth had been
washed away from beneath the rails,
and they hung almost unsupported just |
below the surface Of the water. Thun-
derng down the grade in the rain and
night, ev,ry brakeman at his post on
the top. the great freight engine pung-
ed into the water and went crushing
down. Car after car was piled up there
and hurled to one side down into the
raylne. Clinging to brake just back
of the engine, aud peering ahead
though the storm. his hands wrenched
clear by the shock. Tom was hurled
outward into the air. The crash stun
ned him, but the cold water into which
he fell revived him again, and he
crawled out from the debris on TO the
bank aud worked bis way back to-
wards what should be the rear end OF
the train.
When the first terrible crash came,
the caboose bad been pitched violently
forward an / then flung down, and now
hung tremblingly suspended upon a
single timber of the culyert, which
trembled aud threatened each moment
to part and let The battered car fall on
to the ragged rocks below.
is there any one hurt, Cal" Tom
asked, anxiously, as he finally found
the conductor standing alone IN the
rAiu leside the track.
No; all out safe, think-close call,
though, Tom; awful wreck: | never
saw a orse in thirty years!
Help me helpv
The cry rang out shrill and agonizS
inr from the suspended cabOose below
them.
Help! Pm wedged in Quick?
1t was Ballou's voice, beyond a
doubt.
Give me the ak = and, seizing the
weapon, Tom sprAng out into the
totlering car and dropped down through
a shaft cred window. lie knew the
slender, trembling timber could no.
sustain that Height.long. He knew he
was gong TO almost certain death. He
knew n moment's delay might rid him
of one who had won from him the wo-
man he loved. Il was a moment Tor ven
geauce, but he forgot it all. He knew
moments delay and all of George
Ballou would be dead, mangled body.
But he never hesitated, never doubted
what to do. lie was only h brakeman,
but he was willing 10 sacrifice his own
life, wrecl; his own happiness, to save
the man Kate Carr loved. A martyr,
YOU say-a hero. No: hos could he
be ?-you forget he was but freight
brakeman.
Here, qaickv = he cried, as with
few rapid blows he cut aside the broken
seat which pinned his rival 10 the foor
Of the car.
Quick !! for he fell the car settling
and heard the aroaniug of the timber
giving away. Cal. catch him! anc,
grasped by strong hands, Ballou was 10
the ground above, and then, with
lurch and crash of breaking umoer,
the heavy car plunged downward on to
the rocks, spliutored on their sharp
points aud dashed TO pieces.
Just as the morning came, they found
Tom ly ing there, crushed out OF all
shape, between two great timbers.
.Sne loved h;m-she loved hin! ! was
all he said and, as the sun came up
over the high bank, he breathed his last
sobbinp breath in Cal Bonds arms.
They brought him up to the depot
ard lAid him reverenlly in the great
ladies' waiting room, and as the rail-
road men bore him BY my window, some
oue in the crowd said:
How lucky that only brakeman
was killed.
Some way il seems 10 me that great
hearted Tom Marshall has gone home
TO a Father who never looks to the
grimy clothes and the weather 'beatsn
faces of His children, bit rewards
them according 10 their deeds. Ii so,
his must befn exceedingly great re-
ward.