The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1899-04-30
HORN THE TAILOR
637 ST. 637

it was the scene of a bad accident. An
up train, stopping in the tunnel at no
great distance from the entrance, was run
into by another. Chandos was in the sec
ond train, and at the time of the catastro-
phe was absorbed in his newspaper. a sec
ond after the shock he was seated upon the
floor picking splinter of glass out of his
head and smiling contentedly. The lights
had been extinguished. but upon the PAL
pabie darkness Chandos could read the
words the obvious" almost as plainly
as IL they had been thrown by limelight
upon a sheet. I'VE are none of us really
injured" l suppose a voice had said and
half-a-dozen people, some of them little
obviously, had pronounced themselves I'M
hurt. They were getting out. these peo-
pie. to walk back to daylight. which. they
said. was. fortunately. not far. Chandos.
though with a different purpose. prepared
to follow them. AS he left the compatt-
ment, piece of glass from a broken win
dow fell upon the sill and broke into frag-
ments. and in the further corner there be-
gan slow. regular dripping. The noise
was very faint-so slight that it escaped
the ears of Chandcs altogether but it con-
tinued after he had gone for quite while
with horrid persistence
Once upon the lines, Chandos set him
self to stem the current that had already
was carrying out had come to him as he
sat upon the carriage floor. Starting with
the assumption that in every crisis there
is a manifest duty which no one sees, and
whose neglect has dire consequences. he
had arrived, by process of reasoning
that seemed fiawless, at the conclusion
that he must traverse the tunnels length
and stop the oncoming down train, which.
should ii plunge into the debris of the
the line. There was an up train nearly
due. but this, presumably. would have the
signal against it. There was nothing start
ling about the scheme. but, to Chandos.
this was its great charm. He would act
in an everyday way, and show that by
catastrophes he could be neither stimu-
lated nor depressed. In all that vast
throng he was possibly the only one
whose equable pulses allowed him to be
quite ordinary, the only man with facui-
ties so normal that he could discern the
obvious. The execution of the plan, how
ever presented difficulties. The human
river with which Chandos. like a stout
swimmer. commended was momentarily be-
! ing augmented by tributary riils. These
were composed OF persons whose first
thought had been that nothing very par
ticular had happened, and that their re-
lease could wait until 1t was effected in
! some regular and official way. 1t was no
ticed that these people became. when their
first irrational calm was broken, the fierc-
est of strugglers ChaDdos found himself
tossed about like cork, swept from one
side to the other, and, had it not been
| for his almost physical grasp of his object
| he would have been carried back alto
gether On a sudden the river ceased to
| flow. A high moaning that quickly deep
ened announced that another train had
entered the tunnel. Neither exit being in
| sight. the ear, and the ear alone. had to
locate the danger, and the ear, the least
able to perform. the task. The sound
came from everywhere. 1t enveloped the
distracted multitude like an atmosphere.
| They felt il in their faces, at the backs of
| their necks, while the weight of II seemed
| TO be fiattening them on to the line. For
| shelter men began to rush to the tunnel
wall or to the footboard of the wrecked
| train. few ran helplessly from side to
| side. Chandos kept straight on. the COM
| parative clearness or the course now en-
abling him to make good progress. though
his sensation was that OF being swept
around and around in q whirlpool of
| sound. Suddenly the ciatter rushed up
| into a shrek. The noise became localized,
| and far away down the line there was the
shock of a collision Chandos was quite
| clear of the train by this time. IL did not
| take MN long to reach daylight, and to
| climb into the signal box, where he learn
ed that there was no down train due. The
carriages that were wrecked would in the
ordinary course have furnished the next
| train back. ~
you could not be expected TO know that.
| sir" said the signalman
| Chandos had known it, only in the ex-
| element he had forgotten that he had a
wonderful memory. For the moment he
stood overwhelmed with modification. II
| was no'consolation to him to reflect that he
| had not been conscious OF fear. Possibly
| those others who had rushed to and fro
could say the same thing. Their faculties
| had been paralyzed by the dreadful hap
penings. So apparently had his own. They
were all fantasies he and the rest; origi-
| nails, departures from their everyday selves
I'm times OF peril the high road to dis
tinction is the pathway of the Obvious"
he repeated. How distant now seems the
goal, Possibly, however. there was no OBJ