The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-04

20 1AtHRNA 0AAH ENNAAAAhANA q up W WV
then waved triumphantly.
Now ii was his turn. On she came. his
great black beauty. quietly. steadily.
g%ravely, as If she quite recognized her i'm
mense responsibility. The erection shook
under her, timbers creaked.
then she was alongside Burgo and seemed
TO pause. like a docile. expectant mare. for
her master to mount.
He swung himself up and something like
a laugh welled up in his throat. "Come on.
Jan" he shouted; hurry up. old girl
Jan was five minutes reaching him. for
she had to scramble down the ravine and
up the other side.
She hoped up beside him gay as a bird.
Shove her along" she said. Give her her
head, Burg"
On they few, across the awakened plain,
and not a word between them all the way.
In a week, perhaps, they would be ready TO
talk it over.
They were going more slowly now lest
any curve should show the great train.
They saw the signal was up at a siding.
As they came slowly. fearfully through the
last cutting they heard the starting bell
changing on the Bendooley platform.
But all danger was past. Bendooley saw
them in time and thrilled with horror at
the sight of the great. grave engine COM
ing calmly along the line consecrated TO
the outgoing mail.
Burgo pulled up and began to feel very sick
indeed. Guards and porters. sweat on their
brows and pallor on their faces, came along
to meet them. and the passengers put their
heads out of the windows at the shouts.
Somebody stepped up into the adventuring
locomotive and brought il up TO the plat
form. The mail train stared at it with all
its eyes. Then ii saw the conductors of it
Ia trembling boy in a parti-colored sleep
ing suit. patched at the elbows and most
abbreviated about the legs, and a wild
haired little girl in a nightgown. whose
pristine whiteness was marred with coal
dust and oil. It fell out of its BILE
cars and gathered. staring-eyed, round the
pair, when the first word of the story got
about.
1t had a tight feeling about its throat; it
found it necessary to brush the moisture
from its eyes continually; it trembled and
thanked heaven voicelessly that it stood
here unframed when it might have soon
been lying in horrible chaos and contor-
ton down that ravine.
1t was not the boy at all who told the
news. He stood by. now the strain was
past, sick, trembling, useless.
1t was Jan. with shining eyes and heaving
breast, who gave the story. Not one point
did her artistic little soul miss. She made
the tale graphic. startlingly picturesque,
and the train, its salvation so abruptly re-
cent. laughed and cried with her. There
was only one man who kept his head suffi-
GENTLY TO be able TO want TO know what
had happened before the heroic stage had
been reached. To every one it seemed
clear and simple. These little ones had
seen the danger Of the viaduct. had sprung
upon an engine. there being no one else
there, and had come to save the mail train.
But this one mana porter, who knew
the line well-was singularly without the
capacity for admiring heroes.
How'd it cone round that you kids, who
live in Bundarabee, was on an engine down
at Bendon vi'duct?" he said.
For one second Jan blanched. She saw, in
a flash, how they would fall from the ped
estal the train had built up for them at
the confession that in the first instance
they had run away with the engine. And,
after all, they certainly had, with much ex-
ertion and risk, saved three hundred lives.
She stepped quietly into a lie that speed
lily became so integral a part of the story
that she shortly came to regard it as the
truth.
Il dreamt about it, she said. 1T was
hot last night. and 1 couldn't sleep. and L
dreamt men were cutting the spans"
But why didn't you tell your father and
let him come? Twas his ingin, persisted
the unadmiring man.
Jan looked him full in the face. II knew
he wouldn't believe me- she said. and
added: would you have believed your lit
tie girl if she had Weakened up and told you
that?"
The porter stepped back vanquished. and
the train added a feeling Of slightly super
natural awe to the enthusiasm they felt
for this dark-eyed heroine. There were
more things in heaven and earth they told
each other, than were dreamt of in their
philosophy. They had been saved by one
miracle, it was a small step to go a step
further and believe in another one.
Burgo gazed at his sister family, wonder
ingly. He passed his hand over his eyes to
try to recollect. He remembered how she
had woke him up two hours ago, murmur-
ing of bad dreams; how she had started off
NG N-1 @6Nf $500 11AA-L SAO $500 -
amazed, Mortified when he found out about
the sawn beamsi He looked at her doubt
fully. How strange, strange it all was! But
the girl persisted in ii, and almost believed
herself. She quite clearly remembered
dreaming about a collision, so surely this
was but a small leap of Imagination.
BendoOley had TO feed three hundred
souls that day, for it was nightfall before a
train could be sent down to pick up such
a multitude at the spot where communica-
tiOn ceased.
A passenger started a subscription list for
the plucky children and it swelled beyond
all precedent. Later a grateful government
added a substantial sum. There was no
longer any fear of Burgo not realizing his
dream of engineering. or any chance that
Bundarabee would forever bound JAMS
restless spirit.
But the second evening, when the excite
ment had subsidized a trifie, and boy and
girl were quietly beneath their own roof
tree, the engine-driver spoke.
"R'mind me- he said, suddenly, haven't
give my contribution TO you yonkers yet,
hev u"
Burgo looked nervous, for he knew the
tone and had been surprised at the unques-