Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1892-11-16
trestle! Don't 20 for Heavens sake

II suppose was pFet1y pau!y sc"ieu'
At any rate, put on the air brake for
all was worth. I couldn't have re-
sisted the impulse to stop the train.
GAS we came to stop I could hear
the roar of the water in Rock creek
right ahead. stepped out of the cab,
and met the conductor coming up.
"'What's the. matter? What's the
matter p he asked, impatiently.
"I felt decidedly foolish. There was
no gigantic woman to be seen now.
Nothing could be made out more than
a few feet away in the binding storm.
"Well,' said I, we've seen some
thing. I don't know what it is-seem.:
ed like it was o great black ghost that
was waving its arms and warning US
not to 60 forward"
"The conductor looked at me curl
ously. Are you crazy, Frank p he
said. 4 should think you were. But
we're so near the trestle we'll take q
look at it,
ave took our lanterns and went
ahead, leaving Jim with the engine !;
he looked scared all over. But I tell
you, we hadn't gone FIVE rods before
we stopped in horror.
"There at our feet lay black chasm,
filled with the roar of the river, as,
swollen with the spring rains, it dash
ed down toward the lake. The bridge
was washed away!
"Only few splinters of wood and
twisted iron clung to the abutment,
while now, far out over the blackness,
that awful black figure of woman
danced again on the thin air, relieved
against the shaft of light that the head
light threw.
'It was finging its arms about as if
in wild glee. The conductor stared at
the chasm and then at me.
"'Was that the thing you saw when
you stopped the train p he asked.
ayes
"'Well, it's something more than
luck that saved us to tonight, Frank" ]"
"We went back slowly to the train,
feeling very queer and thankful, too,
I can assure you. Several of the pas
sengers had come running forward by
this time. Among them was o young
fellow from Chicago, about eighteen
years old, who was smarter than the
whole of US, as it turned out.
"When this boy saw the Woman in
Black he turned and looked at the To-
comotive headlight. Then he ran up
toward it. I looked at it as he did 80,
and I saw a peculiar spot on the glass.
"'There's your Woman in Black |!
said the Chicago boy.
"And there it was, sure enough-that
same moth miller that you see there
in that frame. He was clinging to the
inside of the glass. AS tapped on
the glass, the creature flew back and
lighted on the reflector.
"That's the whole story, sir. The
moth, by futtering on the glass just in
front of the electric illuminator, had
produced a great black shadow, like
that of a cloaked woman, on the dark
ness in front of US, and when he flop
ped his wings in his vain attempts to
sail out through the glass, he gave his
mysterious shadow the look of waving
the arms wildly.
"Then when he flew back out of the
direct shine of the light the figure dis
appeared, of course.
1--WE never knew just how he got in
there, but no doubt it happened when
Jim went to fix the light at the pump
ing station.
"Anyhow, he saved our lives by
soaring US with that Woman in Black.
$50 you see why keep the moth in
the frame. It's to remind US Of the
way we were saved that night. Yes,
you might call it accidental, but l call
it providential."
Gall aboard ?" called the conductor
of the limited, coming out of the tele'
graph Office with paper in his hand.
Jim, the fireman, ran and jumped
into the cab as I stepped down to 60
back to my car.