The Red Cloud chief., 1883-11-30

y. An avful night bob
cant .hey send some q elses I A..
Ike to have You CO. o"n !
,NeuMnse, TsGu 4. -
won't hurt me. and IN be b.ct 100
tomorrow. TAc Sup~r,s nsnm;.sY 2ain
~, 'n ne s?uaf: snine. and Il will come
She seemeda little treasured and !
got out my great coat and muei.r "a
"'SVcli. Bob.' says ms wifi. =, ,o..
mus go. why you must bu, ~
added fhorghtsully. and th.,. @"e
the quecrest look passed over her "a
~ careful OF that Faukens,c;n
- scarcely heard what she said ,,,,
o'ddlng her goodbye was soon ON m,.
way 10 the ronnd-house.J Il wa. = ala
night o no mistake: seem. IN ~. :
nav never seen IL blow harde, =, s.n.,
faster. Once or twice I had Ia
oack 70 the blast TO keep from BLOWN
over; Well, was soon on board my
machine. and backing into the station.
hi'ched on TO two cars which wer. ,o
make up the train. As ten O'Clock an
Pr"ached the directors began 10 arrive
Pompous looking men. with PLENTY oi
money and feeling all their importance
Them i~eilers,' saw I 10 myself. feel
their steam pretty well. ! don't sup-
pose they Il look at IN engineer
Dan smith, my fireman, wa on the
watch Tor the conductors signal. and
"hen the clock struck ten we got The
swiftly Oh The lantern aud off we started.
I've seer some pretty had piybls
but that n was the worst I ever re-
member. The storm to-niph. il hard
enough, but II don't begin 10 blow n il
did then. Why, every now and then
we would get a blast that would make
the whole machine trcmbie. and as the
country round Portland IL pretty level.
we took the fall force of the wind. As
we got further inland. il wasn't so bad.
n by the time we were forty nils
ou', II had turned To a summer's gale
n was pouring torrents.
a" And now comes the singular part
OF the story. We had the right of
way. and our dispatcher was TO keep
the whole up TO Fabyan's open for us.
my instructions being To stop only at
North Conway for water. SO l gave
her The throttle, and We bowled along
at a good rate Of speed. making, per-
haps, thirty or thirty-five miles an
hour. As va went whistling through
Sebago Lake station I had a kind oil
feeling come over me that there was
something wrong. / didn't notice IL al
hrst, but every now and then il would
come back to me that all was not ~ il
should be, yet / couldn't think Of any
thing that wasn't right. l alters ex-
anime my machine before I start, give
her a good oilin', look well 10 the bolts
and parallel rods, try the levers and
such, and SO | knew when we left Port
land old 49, was in perfect workin'
trim. Yet the feelin' grew on me I'M
I'll it was a steady thing. | tried 10
shake il of. but 'twan't no use. | felt
1t In my bones that somethin' was up.
Now you gentlemen will laugh at
me for being a fool. and I don't blame
yer, for we was a-goin' along all right,
everything from the water-gaugc to the
cylinders was a workin' in good time.
and / knew that il was only my imagin-
alton, but, to tell the truth, | began To
fell uneasy. l had been an engineer
for ten years. and had been through
some pretty tough scrapcs without
BLOWN for grapes, and the boys all
said as how had a good deal of pluck.
Now ! began to lose all confidence.
Bob said | 10 myself, this won't
do. You're gcttin' nervous. and all for
nothin'! You've no business to be SUI
perstitious n: your time Of life. Brace
up!'
''Twan't no use, however. l could
hev' stood up in our and worn that
there was a kink somewhere. Well,
meanwhile we was sliding along. and
pretty soon reached North CONWAY,
where we was to give the machine u
drink. DAN says I to nv fire.
man, there's somc;hin' ont Of the
way with this machine, and l don't
know what il is
VIVA makes you think SOP said
Dan.
~ cant tell | replied. she works
all right: but l feel i in my bones
q" Guess your thinkin' of your wife,
returned Dam with n laugh.
.'But while we were Ccttin' in the
water | took a lantern and went round
the engine. Looked at every part of
her. raped the bars, Knocked the
wheels. tried her mt every point. and
couldn't find nothin'.
.And | tried 10 think no more about
il. but the feeling was there all the
same. and do the best 1 could l wasn't
able Ia throw il off. '.Well. we had got
a prettygood distance i'm the mountains.
and with that light load .4g' didn't
make nothin' of the up grades.
Perhaps. gentlemen, You have never
been through the hills in winter. It's
some different from summer, l can tell
yer. The mountains loom up dark and
solemn. and with their snow-covcred
sides they seem kinder like big. ghoStly
giants that have been turned 10 stone
standing guard over the valley. The
silence and dcsolation sorter awes one
and il don't seem right to go shrieking
and screaming along their sides in the
dead o night. This time it was worse
than ever. The storm had let loose all
the evil spirits in the air. The wind
swept down the valley with n roar h q
could be heard above the rush of the
train. 1t whistled and yelled Mt the
cab windows. and blew the rain and
slcet SO bard agin the winder frame
could scarcely see the short distance INT
by the headlight. The great trees
rocked to and fro and seemed to hold
out their arms in warning. 1t was q
solemn place for any one. and Tell II
particularly RS l had this awful weight
of anxiety on my mind that had been
agrowin' stronger and stronger each
minute.
well. we had passed Bartlett's.
goin' through there at n pretty good
log. when like n flash of lightning the
parting words of my wife came back to
me: BE careful Of that F~rankenstein
trestle'
THAT set ME TO thinkin'. Could this
be a presentment Of some disaster?
Wa there ANYTHING the matter with the
bridge?
Nonsense, says I. I'm = natural