The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1896-08-20

At this juncture. without any &C.
countable reason, he paused, as If lis
tening intently, arose and walked swift
ly back to his seat at the extreme end
of the car. Thereupon the door opened
and the conductor stood beside him.
At once he gave him a long and appar-
emily animated recital. Several times
he pointed to me.
The railway official came down the
aisle, stopped and looked at me GU.
riously.
Conductor" said 1, "that man is a
lunatic."
In few words detailed the actions
and the declaration Of my fellow pas
senger.
The conductors expression Of curl
osity changed to one of amazement.
why" said he, "I have just been told
you did all that yourself. Are you both
l lunatics?"
was SO astounded that could think
Of nothing to say, and sat there look
ing at the conductor in an uncompar-
ably stupid way. That functionary
studied me obviously for awhile,
glanced back at the other man, and
then, evidently concluding we were
both harmless, left the car.
The extraordinary passenger now re-
mained passively in his seat, with his
back toward me. In short while the
train stopped. I looked out, but could
discover no railway station. A brake
man rushed by me and uncoupled the
forward freight cars, which the engine
pulled away to the station, a quarter of
u mile distant, leaving the two pas
| Senger cars standing alone on the
plain.
The man ahead did not move I
turned to my bag for second to get q
fresh cigar, and when looked again my
man had disappeared. I could not be-
ieve it possible for him to have left
the car within that incredibly short
space of time, and arose quickly and
| started to 90 forward. Almost instant
| ly q couple of bullets whizzed past my
head and crashed through the glass
| door behind me. I was dazed for the
| moment, but two more shots and the
| falling of broken glass acted as q won
derful impetus, and I dropped to the
| floor behind the seats. The next shot
shattered the lamp at the opposite end
of the car. Another, and was covered
with glass from the one above me. That
the shooter was good marksman there
| was no mistaking. After the lamps
| were demolished perfect fusillade of
| shotc ensued, the most of them appar-
emily being directed at the door, to pre-
| vent my escape in that direction. I lay
perfectly still and tried to think. It
| seemed a long time before I heard
| voices on the outside, as the excited
| passengers and train crew gathered
| around the car. None Of them, of course,
dared to enter it. recognized the
| voice of the conductor as he said:
"We'll have to wait until they kill
| each other"
Some moments elapsed and the firing
| became less frequent. began to hope
| that the ammunition of my would-be
| murderer was about exhausted. Sud-
| denly it occurred to me that the win
dow might afford me an escape. Cau-
tiously I reached my hand to the one
| above me and felt for the catch on the
sash. At this very moment my ankle
was grasped by the maniac. who had
crawled under the seats to me. I think
it is very possible that cried out in
terror when this happened. In a fren-
zy of despair I managed to tear myself
loose from his grasp, struggled to my
feet, threw myself under the seats on
the opposite side of the car and began
to do some crawling myself. To my
utter astonishment my antagonist
rushed past me down the aisle. heard
the door slam, but did not know wheth-
er he had left the car or whether he
had merely employed ruse. For sew
eral moments absolute stiffness reigned,
and had just arrived at the conclu-
sion that the mailman had actually de-
parted when the door was pushed open
and the whole interior Of the car lit
up by a locomotive headlight held by
some one on the platform. Back of the
light stood the conductor with pointed
rifle.
"Hands up!" he cried, loudly.
It was a remarkable request to make
of crazy man. thought there could
be no harm in obeying the command
myself, and did so, half expecting to see
the lunatic follow me. The rife was
brought to bear upon me and crowd
pushed into the car, headed by the man
himself who had created all the terror.
There he is, friends!" he yelled.
"Seize him! Don't mind what he says.
He'll tell you that am the lunatic,
but don't mind him. My God! what an
escape I've had!"
The crowd bore down upon and over
powered me. My struggles only served
to convince them that was the mad
man.
But yet another surprise was in store
for me:
"Here is his revolver" said the con-
ductor, dramatically triumphant, pick
ing up pistol which was lying on the
seat beside my bag, land here are the
exploded Shells"
It was true; handful of them was
on the seat.
My bag was searched, but there was
nothing in it to establish my identity.