Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-01-11

ADOub llNb iiflltS uOWu lub TlNbT lay but
village of Jericho, right on the bank of
,ho river, hcmmed in by hills The flood
would surely sweep away its whole popu.
lation unless the place could be warned.
But how 1t would be impossible to tele-
graph, for though the poles had been set
along the new railroad no wires had as
yet been strung on them Suddenly the
thought camc to me like an Inspiration
the power to save the village lies in your
| land And my hand was on the lever OF
tie engine
Within tsinute from the time when
saw the logs dart toward the opening in
the dam had made mp my mind what to
do The Colonel Merriam rolled off the
turntablC and began to puff down the
main track toward Jorcho Past the sta
ton and the side tracked coaches thun-
dcrcd the big locomotive, and as we passed
l caught Il glimpse of the astUnshcd lace
of the conductor as he stood un one of the
platforms. Then, well out of the village
l threw the throttle wider open and the
| Colonel Merriam began to bound over the
rails like race horse. CHANGING back for
an instant, my heart almost stood still as
| saw tho fatCd dam rapidly yielding to
the water, while behind me tossed dark,
boiling foam crested torrent, almost filling
the narrow gorge and rushing on with ter
rifle speed
The railroad skrtcd tho bank of tho rv-
pr all the way to Jericho, and if the food
should ovcrtallc me both and my engine
would be cngulGed in the raging torrent.
Could keep ahead of that angry waterf
Nay, that was not the question! Gould l
distance it sufficiently to warn Jericho in
time? How many minutes would it take,
l asked myself to get the people out of
their houses and on to the higher land?
Five or ten minutes certainly, though the
village was so small that one might have
stood in the center of it and made his cry
Of warning heard in the farthest dwelling.
! threw the throttle still wider open.
The Colonel Merriam was fairly flying al
ready, but the great drive wheels spun
faster and faster, and the engine rocked 50
violently that the bell rang with its sway
ing motion. The unballastcd roadbed ana
the newly laid rails made n track so
trCachoruus and uneven that l feared my
engine would wrench herself to pieces as
she rocked along, but | dared not decrease
the speed Rather must increase it, for
as yet scarcely seemed keeping pace with
the ever deepening and broadening flood
behind
The time bad come to venture all
threw the throttle wide open, and the en-
ginc lOaped forward as if she had fclt the
Insbinc IF Tho tntrcnt Mt berbcels If she
h,d heon rocin., Icrorn IiI;o a wild horse
,,,,,, liz ,,., n ,-i,,, lilo , fri,rbtuod lird.
No oro,t ,,h,rrs sc,rcolv eoo,ncd to +ouch
t1o ,',ils trb, troos and foncns Eceilo tl,c
trocl, vrcro nh , him and The toIroronb
nolcs n,shod Inv 90 fost That thcv Looked
like the palnes of q fence. a curve would
have thrown the Colonel Merriam from
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irLo
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The food, reaching that wide valley,