The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-07-11
MISCELLANEOUS.
IL Might Have Been.

limitations of food But adventures can't
be ordered like roast beef and pie at a res
taurant, but must be taken as they come
like the weather.
The train was hurrying along close to
the river, smoothly and quietly enough
with only an occasional flourish of the
whistle or Eruption of the trainboy selling
"John Smith, Backslider;" Peter Brown.
Greenlander;" Polly Perkins, Woman;"
"Hollow Minde, Novelist or some other
stirring work of contemporaneous fiction.
No one was thinking of danger, as is al
ways the case just before an adventure
indeed the time was ripe for an adventure
of magnitude, such as they used to have
many years ago or still have many miles
away, but it didn't come, for we live in
fallen days and in an evil quarter Of the
earth.
Nevertheless as we glided along the
train began to hump and jolt in an alarm
Ing manner Then it went smoothly
enough again for little way; then again
1t had spasm of jolting and pitching
about as if it were Fifth avenue stage
or some such athletic apparatus rather
than vehicle
Broken rail, =" said one foolish man.
"Off on the ties " said another weak
fellow.
Then all was quiet again, followed by
more humps.
This seems to be the corduroy line"
said the foolish man.
"There are pieces broken out of the
wheels" said the weak fellow. II saw
them when got on. They look like bro
ken nosed pitchers
"Then why doesn' t it jolt all the timer"
asked the foolish man, which broke up
ct, III,
But the train went on, and for half an
hour continued to have occasional parox-
ysms of iolting Then it came to little
station, which consisted of platform and
dog, and stopped. Three men-evident
scoundrels. self heralding enemies of So
ciety-were seen running from the train
along little stream toward the woods,
with half dozen of the trainmen close
behind. Then there was "a struggle among
the bushes, and shocking bad language,
and the noble trainmen came back with
one of the desperadOes and put him in the
baggage car with the trunks, while the
other two men ran away and disappeared
In the underbrush.
But our blood was up, and we held the
train and had man hunt. The bellcord
was taken out and all hands mustered,
except the baggage master and the porter
vi bu6 SieellliB Car, NIllCu ldlltT
ual staid at his post of duty, "sah, quad
ing the property of me passengahs, sab. "
The forces were marshaled under the train
conductor a man whom nature had found
10 ductile that she had drawn him out to
such an extent that the thought occurred
that If the bellcord was lost he could be
put up in its place. So leaving those two
desperate men in the baggage car-that
ID, the train rObber and the baggage mas
ter-our forces set out, the conductor,
with the bell rope over his shoulder, pre-
senting the exact appearance of a bamboo
6shpole and line, at the head of the COM
pany
For the next half hour there was
lodging in and out of men among the
bushes and small trees of 100 acre field
beside the train. At last the men were
surrounded on a little patch of turf near
the stream. The train hands closed in,
She conductor waving like reed at the
'front.'. Then there was another struggle,
and the chief bent like a weeping willow,
wound his arms half a dozen times around
one of the men and held him, while the
other knocked down a brakeman, kicked
the engineer in the stomach and again ran
off The more substantial bellcord was
substituted for the arms of the conductor,
and the prisoner was brought in and put
Into the baggage car with the other out.
law.
Once more the army moved. This time
the conductor had reached down and Dor
rowed revolver from a passenger, little
nickel plated, pocket popgun affair." in
tended perhaps for defense against Jersey
mosquitoes, but in no way designed for
hunting that noble animal-man. But he
took it up with him, and they were off.
More lodging, running, deploying shout
ing, and again the hardened individual
was surrounded He seemed to have be-
come tired of the game, and now produced
a long knife. The men paused and took
astronomical observations of the upper end
of the conductor He was clearly seen to
produce the pistol, and then, floating
down through the still evening air, there
came, one after the other, six times,
peevish pop, which indicated that the
thing was going off. He might as we'll
have held up nickel plated clock and al
lowed IL to strike 6. With derisive laugh
which was quite the proper thing, the out
law turned, nourished his knife and ran
away across the open field toward the riv-
er. The men came back, the passenger
who owned the revolver fastened it to his
watch chain, a half dozen young lady BIZ
cyclists who had been watching the pro-
SSsuluBS tuelllselNGS ONO UDelF ma
chimes and rolled away, the train started,
and We too, rolled away taking our pris-
oners with us.
In a little while the conductor came
back into the sleeper to wash off the smoke
OF battle. 1t seems that the three men had
boarded the train some time during the
afternoon getting on the rear of the tend
er. AS the observing traveller knows, there
Is situated here a long box in which is kept
various overgrown tools for repairs, such
as 10 pound monkey wrench, an absurd
hammer, extra coupling links and pins,
some chain with links like sausages and
similar things. 1t appears that this box
was not locked, and these amiable tourists
had amused themselves by dropping out
these articles on the rails, their intention
evidently being to throw the following
cars off the track. Asked as to his opinion
of the object which the men had in view
in wrecking the train, the conductor leaned
down near his questioner while he wiped
each finger repeatedly with a furious twist
ing motion, as if trying to unscrew it from
the hand, and Kissed the one word plum
derl'