The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1896-01-22
The First Glass Passenger

The midnight train was due to start
in five minutes. The night was bitter
ly cold, a hard frost having set in
shortly after dusk. The guard of the
train appeared to feel the cold keenly f;
yet, instead of pacing the platform or
bustling about to keep his blood cir
culating, he stood shivering in front
of first class carriage, looking miser-
able and detected in the extreme.
His restless eyes had fixed them
selves on the entrance to the platform,
and a moment later, without any
cherry "This way, SIR" he silently,
and in manner which even at that
time struck Mr.. Yorke as peculiar,
held up his arm as signal. 1t was a
signal which had been expected, for it
was answered by a similar gesture
from tall, slender man, who came
hurrying down the platform, pushing
in front of him bath chair.
The guards agitation had visibly
increased upon the arrival of this pas
senger, but the latter was cool, rapid
in his movements, and as dextrous 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. Mr.. Yorke saw that the
invalid was lady, well wrapped up
in cloaks and shawls and heavily
yelled.
The ride was without incident until
five minutes after passing through
Goodridge tunnel, the shout of ma n
instantly followed by another, which
might have been the echo of the
former, but that it was a distinctly
different voice, interrupted the monot-
onous rattle of the train, and the
driver shut off steam in response to a
summons by the communication cord.
At that instant the up express
rushed quivering by.
The cries had both come from the
off side, and putting his head out of
the window, Mr.. Yorke, as his eye
grow accustomed TO the darkness,
found that the guard had already
gained the footboard of the carriage
from whence the alarm had presumably
emanated. There were shouts from
the guard to the driver, much giving
of arms, and then the train backed
slowly for few hundred yards. There
the guard and the passengers dis
mounted. Mr.. Yorke followed suit.
He saw at once that there had been
ghastly occurrence. The trunk OF
woman was lying across the up line,
and the head had been completely
severed from it by the engine wheels
OF the up train.
Mr.. Yorke's momentary view of the
lady of the bath chair was sufficient to
enable him TO identify her as the VIC
tim OF this midnight horror. The
wraps were easily recognizable. Look
ing closer, he imagined there was
very little blood about for mutilation
so terrible, and stopping to touch the
hand, in spite of the protest of the
tall passenger, he found something
which arounsed his journalistic in
stincts to their fullest activity--some-
thing which sent him running up and
down the train for doctor; some-
thing which exasperated him strangely
when all his exsrtions failed to find
one. Obviously there was no medical
man living near.
Mr.. Yorke next turned to the tall
stranger and introduced himself as a
newspaper man. The tall man who
had been scowling blackly over Mr..
Yorke's Intervention, looked greatly
relieved upon hearing that gentle
mans profession, and readily con-
sented to give his version OF the mat
ter for publication. But first of oil
he desired that note should be taken,