Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-12-19
BEATING A RAILROAD.
BY LINCOLN SPRINGFIELD.

start in five minutes. A few dismal
lamps, their big globular glasses al
most opaque by reason of their grimi-
ness, gave a miserable yellow light
which seemed not so much to illuminate
the platform as to throw into the deep
gloom of Pickering shadows those parts
of the terminus which the discouraged
rays of the gas jets failed to penetrate.
An elderly porter, who alleged with
shameless effrontery fictitious search
ty of foot-warmers, was making a
pocketful of small silver by his mastery
of the situation; and in the manufac-
ture of this corner in a comfort for
which there was great demand, the
elements conspired with him. The
night was bitterly cold, hard frost
having set in shortly after dusk. The
guard of the train appeared to feel the
cold keenly; yet, instead of pacing the
platform or busting about to keep his
blood circulating, he stood shivering
In front of a first-class carriage, look
Ing miserable and detected in the ex-
IRENE. Indeed, the man appeared to
be ill, and Alec Yorke, a journalist, who
had already secured corner seat in
q compartment nearer the engine, APP
preached him with Good Samaritan in
tentions, imagining that a nip from
his flask might be peculiarly welcome
TO the official at that moment. But
the guard Inexperienced the news
paper mans object.
IL, -,
he said, with an agitation out of all
proportion to the occasion. 1T is re-
served for an invalid lady and her hus-
band"
Gall right, guard" rejoined Mr..
Yorke, "but you look off color. Is there
anything wrong with your"
"No, sir, thank you," replied the Of
fetal, but he was not looking at the
person to whom he spoke. His rest
less eyes had fixed themselves on the
entrance to the platform, and moment
later, without any CHEEKY: "This way,
SIR" he silently, and in manner which
even at that time struck Mr.. Yorke as
peculiar, held up his arm as a signal
TO an approaching passenger. 1t was
q signal which had been expected, for
1t was answered by q similar gesture
from a tall, slender man who came
hurrying down the platform pushing
in front of him bath-chair. He wore
o heavy, fur-lined coat, with a new silk
hat and patent leather boots, and the
braiding on the coat would have given
him military appearance but for his
pronounced stoop and his narrow chest.
He wore a neat black mustache, and
would have been better looking man
had those keen, penetrating eyes of his
been little less close together.
The guards agitation had visibly in
creased upon the arrival of this pas
senger, but the latter was cool, rapid
In his movements, and as dexterous in
his actions as if he had rehearsed them,
when he came to assist the guard in
lifting the occupant of the chair into
the carriage. The tall man, with his
overcoat flowing open, was between
Mr.. Iorke and the chair as the invalid
was lifted, and Mr.. Yorke did not care
to indulge an unmannerly curiosity by
prying, but he saw that the invalid
was lady, well wrapped up in cloaks
and shawls and heavily yelled. The
guard having locked the door the pas
senger beckoned to a porter, gave him
a shilling and instructed him to have
the chair sent back in the morning to
81 Lambert square, Pimlico. Mr..
Yorke had barely reached his seat be-
fore the guard blew his whistle. Hap
pening to look at his watch that gen
tleman was surprised to find that the
train had been started two minutes
before time. IsEt
The ride was without incident until,
five minutes after passing through
Goodridge. tunnel, the shout of man,
instantly followed by another which
might have been the echo of the former,
but that it was in a distinctly different
voice, interrupted the monotonous
rattle of the train, and the driver shut
Diff steam in response to a summons by
the communication cord. At that
instant the up express rushed CULVER
ing by.
The cries had both come from the Off
side, and putting his head out of the
window, Mr.. Yorke, as his eye grew
accustomed to the darkness, found that
the guard had already gained the foot
board of the carriage from whence the
alarm had presumably emanated. The
door was swinging wide open, as a sud-
den stream of light from the guards
bnlls-eye revealed, and the tall passen-
ger in the fur-lined overcoat was gestic-
ulating and talking vehemently. There
were shouts from the guard to the
driver, much waving of arms, and then
the train backed slowly for few hun
dred yards. There the guard and The
passengers dismounted, and, ignoring
the command of the guard: keep YOUR
seats, please" uttered in too waveriug
tone to turn him from his purpose.
Mr.. Yorke followed suit. He saw at
once that there had been CHASTITY oc-
currence. The trunk of a woman was
lying across the up line, and the head
had been completely severed from it by
the engine-wheels of the up train. 1t
was spectacle to chill the blood, even
partially yelled as the sight was by the
mantle of the night, except when the
guard, with unsteady hand. threw the
light of his lantern on the mutilated
remains.