Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-01-14

As for Ughtred, froi,4 his seat un til-
telegraph post ON the side of the line FIVE
hundred yards farther up, he saw her
pause by the gate. chen dash across the
road, then stumble snd trip, then fall
heavily forward ,iis heart came up
.nto his mouth at once ut the sight. Oh,
thank heaven he had waited! Thank
heaven he was nearl She had fallen
across the line, and a train might come
along before she could rise up again.
She seemed hurt too. In a frenzy of
suspense he darted forward to save her.
1t took but a second for him to realize
that she had fallen and was seriously
hurt, but in the course of that second,
even as he realized it all, another and
more pressing terror seized him.
Harkl what was that? He listened and
thrilled. Oh, no; too terrible Yes, yes,
it must be-the railway, the railway
He knew it. He felt it, Along the up
line, on which Netta was lying, he heard
behind him-oh, unmistakable, unthink-
able, the fierce whirr of the express
dashing madly down upon him. Great
heavens, what could he do? The train
was coming, the train was almost this
moment upon them. Before he could
have time to rush wildly forward and
snatch Netta from where she lay, full in
its path, a helpless weight, it would have
swept past him resistlessly and borne
down upon her like lightning
The express was coming-to crush
Meta to pieces.
In these awful emonents men don't
think, they don't reason, they don't
even realize what their action means;
they simply act and act instinctively
Ughtred felt in second, without even
| consciously feeling it, 50 to speak, that
any attempt to reach Netta now before
that devouring engine had burst upon
her at full speed would be absolutely
hopeless.
His one chance lay In stopping the
train somehow. How or where or with
what he cared not. His own body would
, do it if nothing else came. Only stop it,
stop it. He didn't think of it at all shat
moment as set of carriages containing
precious freight OF human lives. He
thought Of it only as horrible, cruel,
| devouring creature, rushing headway on
at full speed to Netta's destruction. 1t
was senseless wild beast, to be com
bated at all hazards. 1t was a hideous,
ruthless, relentless thing, to be checked
in its mad career in no matter what
fashion. All he knew, indeed, was that
Meta, his Meta, lay helpless on the
| track, and that the engine, like some
madman, putting and snorting with wild
glee and savage exultation, was hasten
ing forward with fierce strides to crush
and mangle her.
At any risk he must stop it-with any
thing
AS he gazed around him, horror
struck, with blank, inquiring stare, and
/ with this one fixed idea possessing MS
whole soul, Ughtred's eye happened tO
fall upon the dismantled telegraph post,
on which but one minute before he had
been sitting. The sight inspired him.
Ha, ha! glorious chance. He could lift
it on the line. He could lay it across
the rails. He could turn it around into
place. He could upset the train! He
could place it in the way of that mur,
derous engine.
No sooner thought than done With
the wild energy of despair the young
man lifted the small end of the ponder
GUS post bodily up in his arms, and
twisting it on the big base as on an earth
fast pivot, managed, by main force and
with violent effort, to lay it at last
full in front of the advancing locomo.
tive. How he did it he never rightly
knew himself, for the weight of the
great bulk was simply enormous. But
horror and love, and the awful idea that
Netta's life was at stake, seemed to sup.
ply him at once with unwonted energy.
He lifted it in his arms as he would have
lifted child, and straining in every
limb stretched it at last full across both
rails, formidable obstacle before the
approaching engine.
! Hurrah! hurrah! he had succeeded
now. 1t would throw the train off the
line-and Netta would be saved for him.
/ To think and do all this under the
spur of the circumstances took Ughtred
SOM t.,...sg .-.-I l.. 1s. In
great crisis men live rapidly. It was
quick as thought. And at the end of il
all he saw the big log laid right across
the line with infinite satisfaction. Such
splendid obstacle that--so round and
heavyl 1t must throw the train clean
off the metals! It must produce fine,
first class catastrophe.
As he thought it, half aloud, a sharp
curve brought the train around the cor.
ner close to where he stood, great drops
ofsweat now oozing clammily from every
pore with his exertion. He looked at il
languidly, with some vague, dim sense
of a duty accomplished, and q great
work well done for Netta and human
! ity. There would be real, live accident
in a moment nova splendid accident
"a first rate catastrophe!
Great heavens! An ACCIDENT
And then, with sudden burst of in
spiration, the other side of the transac-
tion flashed in cne electric spark upon
Ughtreds brain. Why-this-was mur-
J der! There were people IN that train
innocent human beings, men and women
like himself, who would next minute be
wrecked and Hlangled corpses, or writh-
ing forms on the track before himl He
1 was guilty of crime-an awful crime.
he was trying . produce a terrible,