The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1883-11-22

She seemed little rsassussd. and g
out my great coat and muiiief and in q
y ! prepared 10 start ont
~ well. Bob" says my viis. ''ifyou mu
. 90, Why you must; but she adds
3 thoughtfully. and thsrs vas The qussre,
J look passed over her face, ''is careful {
q that Frankenstein trestls"
scarcely heard what she ssid. bat bid
ding her goodbye was soon o. my way /
tho round house II was . wild nigh
and no mistake: seems 10 me | have neve
seen il blow harder or snow foster.
Well. vas soon on board ny machine
and. backing into the station, hitchcd OF
to the two cars which were to make up th,
train. As 10 o'clock approached tho di
: rectors began TO arrive. pomHus looking
men with plenty Of money and feeling all
their importance.
Them fellers, says | 10 myself. ''iecl
their steam pretty we'll. / don't suppose
they'd look at an engineer.
i Dan Smith. my fireman. vaa on the
wstsa fov ths conddctor's signal. and whom
the clock struck love got the sving Of
the lantern and Of We stsrtsd.
I've seen some pretty bad nightA but
that one WAS the worst l over remember.
The storm to night is hard enough. but il
don't begin to blow a. II did then. Why,
every now and then We would get blast
that would make the whols. machine trem-
BILE, and as the country around Portland
is pretty level, We took the full force Of
the wind. Az We got further Inland. il
wasn't SO bad, and by tho time We we're 40
miles out, it had turned to summers
gale, and was pouring torrents.
And now comes the singular part Of The
story. We had the right Of way. and our
dispatcher was to keep the whole line up
to Fabyan's open for us, my instructions
being to stop only At North Conway for
water. So gave her the throttle and we
bowlsd along at good rate Of speed. max
ing perhaps 80 or 35 miles an hour. As
We went whistling through Sebago Lake
station / had kind Of feeling come over
me that something was wrong I didn't
notice it At first. but every now and then
Il would come to me that all was not as it
should be, and yet couldn't thing OF any
hing that wasn't right. Ialways examine
ny machine before start, and give her q
rood oilin', look we'll to the bolts and par
lllel rods and such; 80 ! knew when wo
oft Portland that old 49 was in perfect
vorkin' trim as need be- Yet the feel
ng grew on me until twas steady thing.
tried TO shake it of. but 'twant no use.
felt in my bones that something was
vrong. K
Now you gentlemen will laugh at me
or beiu' fool, and I don't blame yer. for
ve was goin' along all right. everything
rom the water gauge to the cylinder was
vorkin' in good time, and knew it was
'nly my imagination, but, to tell the
ruth. began to feel uneasy. had been
N engineer for 10 years, and had been
trough somo pretty tough scrapes with
mt BLOWN for brakes. and tho boys all
aid had good deal Of pluck. Now, !
,egan to lose all confidence
Bob, says TO myself, "this won't do.
iou're gettin nervous and all for nothin'.
lou've no business to be superstitious at
orr time Of life. Brace np!'
'Twant no use, however could have
TODD up 10 court and sworn that there was
kink somewhere. Well, meantime we
7as sliding along and pretty soon reached
forth Conway, where we was to give the
Machine drink. "Dan," says to my !
reman, "there's something out Of the
'ay with this machine, and don't know .
that it is" :
"What makes you think so9" says Dan.
II cant tell" replied. "She works
II right. but l feel it in my bones.
"Guess you're thinkin' OF your wife. +" =
Dturned Dan with laugh.
But while we were gettin' in the water =
took lantern and went all around the 3
ngine looked at every part Of her,
lpped the bars, knocked the wheels. tried
er at every point, aud couldn't find moth. :
L." u
"Pshawl says !. I'm fool. She's all
ght. y
"And tried to think no more about it,
ut TIE feeling was there all the same. and :.
0 the best could. / couldn't throw il -
]. Well, we had got pretty good dis = I,
nee in the mountains, and with that light =
ad 40 didn't make nothin' OF the up "
AIDES. :"
Perhaps gentlemen. you have never =
zen through the hills 10 winter. It's
mo different from summer can tell yer
he mountains loom up dark and solemn, :,
d with their snow covered sides they - i.
EN- kinder like big, ghostly giants that RI ~
70 turned to stone standing guard over :
. valley. The silence and desolation = =
rter s~es one, and it don't seem right 10 - -
shrisking and screaming along their
les in the dead O night. This time it =
s worse than ever. The storm had lot
,se All the evil spirits ia tho air. The