Evening journal., 1901-01-02

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adverse circumstances, and poured forth
abuse like water. Others followed
some angry, some silent, all cold and
miserable A stout woman in black who
had been sent for to a dying child was
weeping aloud; dazed man with bound
up head and terrified wife were pounced
upon Immediately by expectant friends
and borne off with voluble sympathy.
One or two people slightly hurt were
helped out after the others. The train
was emptied at last. Aurelia was not
there. Charles went down the length of
the train. looking into each carriage. and
then came back, answering Ralph's
glance with a shake of the head. The
man in black. who seemed to have been
watching him, came up.
Have all come back by this trainY"
Charles asked.
"All, sir, except'-and he hesitated-
"except a few. The doctor who went
has not returned, and the guard saws
there were some Of the passengers badly
hurt-that he would not allow to be
moved from the farm when the train
came for them. The engine driver and
one or two others were"-
Charles made a sign to him to be ST.
lent.
How far is it," he asked.
Twenty miles, sir"
Are the roads practicables"
mo, sir. At least they would be very
uncertain once you got into tho lanes
we can walk along the line" said
Ralph. THAT must be clear. Let us
start at once"
Gould not the station master send us
down on an engipes" asked Charles.
I'VE would pay well for it."
The police inspector shook his head.
but Charles went off to inquire never
theless. and he followed him. thought
him very pushing, inquisitive kind Of
person. have always had a great dis
like to the idle curiosity which is con-
tinually prying into the concerns of
others Ralph and / walked up and
down, Up and down the now deserted
platform. / spoke 10 him once or twice,
but he hardly answered. and after a
time | gave it mp and we paced in silence.
At last Charles returned. His request
for an engine had been refused, but a
further relay of worlmen was being sent
down the line in a couple Of hours time,
and he had obtained leave for himself
and US TO go with them. After two
long, interminable hours of that ever
lasting pacing we found ourselves in an
open truck. full Of worlmen, steaming
slowly ont Of the station. At the last
moment the man in black jumped in and
accompanied US.
The pace may have been great, but to
MS it seemed exasperatingly slow, and in
the open truck the cold was piercing
The worlmen, who laughed and talked
among themselves, appeared TO take no
notice of it, but I saw that Charles was
shivering, and presently he made his
brother light his pipe and began to
smoke hard himself.
Ralph's pipe. however, went out un-
needed in his fingers. He sat quite still
with his back against the side of the
truck, his eyes fzed upon the gray hori-
izon. Once no turned suddenly to his
brother and said, as if unable to keep
elltilJt OA Wlldl Was III LIS AAAA4As
"What was her objecty
Charles shook his head.
"They were hers alreadyg' he went on.
''She would have had them all. If she
bad had debts / would have paid them.
What could her object have been?' And
seemingly, without expecting a reply, hf
relapsed into silence.
IL
were passing through lonely country
Here and there village Of struggling
cottages met the eye, clustering round
their little church. In places the hedge
rows alone marked the lie of the hidder
/ lanes; in others men were digging Ouf
the roads through drifts of snow, anc
carts and horses were struggling pain
I fully along.
In one place little walking funera
was laboring across the fields from I
lonely cottage in the direction Of tn
church, high on the hill, the bell o
which was tolling through the quiet air
The sound reached us as we passed, an'
seemed to accompany us on our way.
heard the men talking among themselve
that there had been no snow storm lik
to this for thirty years, and as they spok
some of them began shading their eye
and trying to look in the direction i
which we were going.
We had now reached low waste o
uninclosed land, with sedge and gors
pricling up everywhere through tn
snow, and with long lines Of pollard
marking the bed Of frozen stream
Near the line was deserted brick lrilr
surrounded by long, uneven mounds an
ridges of ice, with three poplars mount
ing guard over it. Flights Of rooh
hung over the barren ground an
wheeled in the air with discordar
clamor as we passed-the only livin
moving things in the utter desolation {
the scene. AS looked there was an el
clamation from one of the worlmen an
the engine began to slacken. We wei
there at last.
ITO Be Continued on Saturday,
Inferred I'm Philadelphia