Evening star., 1902-09-13

if anybody can. But the wind; did you
ever see such a blow?'
Even while he spoke the cry for bt takes
came third time on the storm.
A frightened Pullman porter opened the
rear door of the sleeper. Five hundred peo-
pie lay in the excursion train, unconscious
| of this avalanche rcliing down upon them.
The conductor of the flyer ran up to Ben
in a panic.
| Buckley, they'll telescope u.s.
Can you pull ahead any?''
| The bridge is out"
Get out your passengers" said Bens
| brakeman
There's time cried the passenger
| conductor wildly, running off He was
panic-stricken. The porter tried to speak.
he took hold of the brakeman's arm but
| his voice died in his throat: fear paralyzed
him Down the wind came Camerons whis-
! tIe' clamoring now in alarm. 1t meant the
worst and Ben knew it, The stock train
| was running away.
There were plenty of things to do if there
was only time; but there was hardly time to
thinh The passenger crew were running
ABOUT ike men distracted, trying TO get the
sleeping travellers out. Ben knew they
could not possibly reach a tenth of them.
In the thought of what it meant, an in
! Spiration came like flash
! He seized his brakeman by the shoulder
For two weeks the man carried the marks
of his hand.
"Daleyr he cried, in a voice like a ,.ist 81
crack, get those two stockmen out of our
Il
! Cameron into the cattle"
IL was chance-single, desperate but
yet chance-the only chance that offered
| to save the helpIess nassenears ~, ~;
! charge. " '--'
If he could reach the siding switch ahead
! vi ol tme runaway train, he could throw the
! deadly catapult on the siding and into his
| oNn .lail. ana SO save the unconscious
| idFeierS. BefoGe the words were out of his
! mouth he started up the track at topmost
| speed. a. 'opi'ioN'
Ihe angry wind staggered him. It blew
ou. , ms lantern, but he flung it away. for he
| couId throw the switch in the dark A
| sharp gust tore half his raincoat from his
| Ddch' ripping on the rest he ran on When
| the wind took his breath he turned his back
| aIiu . loushl Tor another. Binding sheets of
| ram poured on him: water streaming down
tne track caught his feet; a slvered tie
| trlpped him. and falling headlong the
snarp ballast cut his wrists and knees like
broken glass. In desperate haste he dashed
| dneau again; the headlight loomed before
| nlm ike a mountain of flame There was
lsht enough now through the sheets of rain
that swept down on him. and there ahead.
| the train almost on it. was the switch
Could he make it?
| a cry from the sleeping children rose in
| ms neart. Another breath, an instant
noundering slipping leap and he had it.
| He pushed the key into the lock. threw the
| switch and snapped it, and to make deadly
| sure, braced himself against the target-rod
| Then he looked.
No whistling now: it was past that He
| knew the fireman would have jumped
! Cameron, too? No. not Andy not if the pit
| yawned in front of his pilot
| He saw streams of fire flying from many
Wneels-he felt the glare of a dazzling light
and with rattling crash the ponies shot
INTO the switch. The bar in his hands rat
| ued as II 1t would jump from the socket
and !urching frightfully the monster took
! the siding. A flare of lightning lit the ca
as it shot past, and he saw Cameron lean
ing from the cab window with face of
| stone, his eyes riveted on the gigantic driv-
ers that threw sheet of fire from the
! sanded rails.
Jump screamed Ben, useless as he
| knew it was. What voice could live in that
| hell of noise? What man escape from that
(, cab now?
| One, two, three. four cars pounded over
| the split rails in half as many seconds. Ben.
| running dizzily for life to the right heard
| above the roar of the storm and screech
! of the sliding wheels a ripping, tearing
| crash. the harsh scrape of escaping steam,
| the hoarse cries of the wounded cattle. And
| through the dreadful dark and the fury of
| the babel the wind howled in a gale and
the heavens poured a food.
Trembling from excitement and exhaus-
ton. Ben staggered down the main track.
A man with lantern ran against him: it
| was the brakeman who had been back with
the torpedoes: he was crying Historically.
They stumbled over body. Selling a
| lantern, Ben turned the PROSTATE man over
| and wiped the mud from his face Then he
| held the lantern close and gave great cry.
1t was Andy OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, true,
! but soon very much alive and no worse
| than badly bruised. How the good God
who watches over plucky engineers had
thrown him out from the horrible wreck
| age only He knew. But there Andy lay;
and with lighter heart Ben headed a
/ wrecking crew to begin the task of search
. ing for any who might by fatal chance
have been caught in the crash.
And while the trainmen of the freights
| worked at the wreck the passenger train
was backed slowly-so slowly and so
| smoothly-up over the switch and past,
| over the hill and past, and so to Turner
| Junction, and around by oxford to Zanes-
| vile.
When the sun rose the earth glowed in
| the freshness Of it's June shower bath. The
flyer, now many miles from Beverly HILL
| was speeding in toward Omaha, and moth
| ers waking their little ones in the berths
told them how close death had passed while
they slept. The little girls did not quite un-
| derstand It, though they tried very hard,
| and were very grateful to That Man, whom
| they never saw and whom they would
never But the little boys-never mind
| the little boys-they understood 1t, to the
! youngest urchin on the train, and fifty
! times their papas had to tell them how far
| Ben ran and how fast to save their lives.
| And one little boy-I wish knew his name
| went with his papa to the depot master at
| Omaha when the flyer stopped, and gave
him his toy watch and asked him please
to give it to That Man who had saved his
mammals life by running SO far in the
| rain, and please to tell him how much
| obliged he was-if he would be so kind.
! So the little toy watch came to our super
! intendent. and so to me; and /, sitting at
| Cameron's bedside. talking the wreck over
| with Ben. gave 1t to him; and the big fell
| low looked as pleased as If it had been a
| jeweled chronometer; indeed, that was the
| only medal Ben got.
The truth is we had no gold medals to
distribute out on the West End in those
days. We gave Ben the best we had, and
that was passenger run. But he is a
great fellow among the railroad men And
on stormy nights switchmen in the Zanes-
vile yards. smoking in their shanties still
tell OF that night, that storm, and how Ben
Buckley threw second seventy-seven at the
foot of Beverly HILL
| Whv Nofp