Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1890-04-18
this speech had upon me, jerked my.


arms as if trying to get them free.
"Ah, yesl I'll unfasten your arms
now," he said, and in moment he cut
the ropes that bound them with knife.
Then he continued: ''Yes, expect
you will want to use your arms before
long, and having them stretched out in
that way is apt to make them stiff and
useless"
When my arms were free ] attempted
once more to remove the gag from my
mouth; but as before he beat me with
a stick until desisted.
was helpless. Minute after minute
passed, and knew that the train would
come along presently. Every moment
imagined that felt the vibrations of
the wheels along the rail under my
head. Abe was sitting beside me,
listening intently for the first rumbling
sound to each his ears. When he heard
it knew that he would place the rope
in my hands and give me the choice of
wrecking the train or losing my life.
shall not attempt to describe the
thoughts and feeling that went through
my brain and body, for that were i'm.
possible.
Presently threw out my hand and it
fell upon the pistol, which had for
gotten all about since Abe's return.
Now, however, my fingers graspcd it
firmly and l began to think how could
use it to save myself and at the same
time avert the danger to the coming
train.
Inever knew how it happened, but
in a moment my hand lifted the weapon
into the air. Abe saw it, and sprang
to his feet, and made an attempt to
take it away from me, when it explod-
ed; then he staggered backward few
steps and fell to the ground.
When the noise of the pistol shot
stopped ringing in my ears, another
sound reached them. The rumbling of
the train came to me along the rails
from the distance. A few minutes at
the most, and it would be upon me. ]
tore the gag out of my mouth and
shouted.
yet held the pistol in my hand.
What use could make of it2 could
put an end to my life. But the rush.
ing, rumbling wheels of the train would
do that for me, and only too soon. My
eyes fell upon the signal lights on the
bridge and q new idea struck me.
turned my head and saw the headlight
of the locomotive not far away. The
next moment raised the pistol, took
good aim and fired at the signal lantern
on the bridge, but missed it. ! fired
again and again until the pistol was
empty, but with the same result, for
the lantern was still cleaning brightly,
swinging to and fro in the wind, as if
beckoning tho train to come and de-
stroy me.
The glare from the headlight of the
locomo tive seemed to be right above
me, the roar of the train drowned my
voice, and the jar of the rail under my
head felt like an electric current run
ming through my body. l closed my
eyes and waited for the end.
Suddenly the jar and noise stopped,
and shortly heard voices close beside
me. / looked up and saw some people
bending over me; but l was too weak
to speak. They released me from the
rails and carried me on board the train,
and / knew nothing moro for many
days.
When returned to consciousness ]
was told that the engineer had seen
the flashes from the pistol when fred,
and had succeeded in stopping the
train when within a few feet of where
I lay; but not before it had run over
the body of Abe Wilder.
1t was several months before I rocov-
cred sufficiently from the shock of that
our of terror to move about. 1t made
me an old man in appearance; for my
steps are feeble, my cheeks are sunken
and shrivelled, and my hair is white as
snow. - Times Democrat