The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1894-01-18

more, and, we'll, We were all alive yet.
There was no doubt of that. Above
the crashing we could hear the painting
of our pursuer, and, 50 keen Is the ear
that believes its last moment at hand,
we could distinguish the breath of our
own noble No. BOB under the never
doubtful grip of great John Thomas.
An instant-One imperceptible in
slant mOre-and then the practiced ear
of the railroad man. thank God. caught
the chord of dissonance in the grind of
the wheels which announced that we
had reached the upgrade. Now, there
were only four miles more, if we could
only hold out. Or if our pursuer should
make steam too fast. or the water get
too high in the gauge: Alas, nothing
of the sOrt-a mist seemed to come be-
fore our eyes. the end was near.
1T such crises. at all crises where
peril to life is involved. the conductor
of passenger train is like the captain
| of ship at sea-an absolute monarch.
His authority cannot be questioned,
and his discretion is authority. The
president of the road as we'll as the
porter or the private secretary, or the
humblest passenger is in his hands.
At this moment, then, our conductor
approached as.
Gentlemen" he said, climb on to
the engine or jump into the ditch. as
| you prefer. | am going to uncOuple
| this car"
! The president went first, the general
counsel followed The porter and
went next. We clambered upon the
! tender of John Thomas noble BOB.
| Our conductor uncOupled the presi-
| dents car and left her to her fate-we
| were saved.
| Oh, the seltishness and thOughtless-
ness of men. We were saved. Yes
but little Miss Canthorpe, the pretty
| typewriter. where was she: There
was nothing to do but to blush for it,
and blush we all did We had actually
five strong, ablebodied men-actually
left slender, graceful, pretty. modest
Woodworking little maid to be first
ground and then scalded to death. She
would have worked her poor little fin
gers to the bone for us. But, alas. the
instinct of MISREPRESENTATION had made
towards of us all. For my own part
it seemed as if we were lot of muir
derers besides.
Surely the crash must come now
But as it happened, just as the conduc
tor reached down to uncGuple, we
passed the summit and the descent be
gan-the difference of an inch haC
turned the tables. and the momentum
of the car held the drawbacks flush
together, even tighter than the coup
ling itself had done.
There were now five of us clinging tt
the black coal heap on the tender
while John ThOmus still kept hi
| L. 10
man was the fireman of No. BOB. u
to this time we had not observed him
But he had caught our frightened
words about the typewriter and las ap
peared later) was ambitious to distin
guish himself, being a new hand ant
therefore more Or less on trial for hi
position. He was an understood man
his features all but concealed by tn
SCOT and the grim of his trade-cer
tainly nothing about his exterior sug
gested the hero. Before we wer
even aware of his presence, he ha'
sprang past us, dropped to the plat
form of the Presidents car an
disappeared within it. The fast-dyin
momentum of the heavy Pullman TN
coupled fir, m its motor was now to b
added to the painting Frankenstein be
hind it in calculating the chance
against rescue. But whatever tn
calcu alton. in moment more the brav
fireman had appeared, climbed, hal
dragging, half carrying the poor littl
typewriter up ON to the coal heap. an
was drip ng dirty water from the tan
hose into her pale and haggard face
What happened further was browne
in crash and rear. A black mas
was vomited upward. The President
; car and the demon engine. locked in
, large black embrace, had gone int
space together.
John Thomas slowed up at the stu
switch, where it seems there had lee
no operator after all \ sleepy switch
man-heayen be thanked tia. we ha
| not been Obliged to trust our lives
, him came heavily out. Through hil
. our conductor signaled an oEstructio
, behind us. and on we went fifty mile
, an hour. And now. the peril passed
we again compared watches. Tn
, twelve miles. and all that | have d,
scribed = the imminent death, tn
, seeming lifetime it had all transpire
in exactly five and one half minutes.
!. CHAPTER III.
, Well, the legal business was col
: cluded. the transfer made, and all VIZ