Newport daily independent., 1902-09-16

some dinner. We have the nuisance of nights journey ahead of us. Come on and we'll all dine together"
 The man arose and went with him, and as Holcombe turned he caught sight of Charlotte, and start ed slightly. Reluctantly enough she raised her eyes and bowed, and he re- turned 1t formally and passed out. For the merest fraction of asecond, he seemed to hesitate, but now he was gone.
 His mother! A tinge of the old bitterness came back to Charlotte His mother had not accepted her as prospective daughter-in-law with out struggle. She was proud and stately old lady, and had centered all her wishes on brilliant marriage for Dick, whereas Charlotte, with all her fair face and name no less hon. orable than his own, could bring him nothing of worldly advancement or influence. It had been Mrs Hol- combe's attitude, which the world knew as we'll as she, that had made that bitter quarrel possible, and had hardened Charlotte's hurt pride into a thing of steel and ice
 It was foolish to think of those things now. They were past, far past. Charlotte turned back to her listless contemplation of the win dow and it's reflections. She had seen Dick but once before since that day. He seemed a little thin, too
 Out of darkness there came a deafening roar, a resistless shock which hurled strong men from their seats like toys, and the grinding crash of splintering wood, and iron on iron. On the heels of this a second dizzy jerk, a second bruising crash, and the car lurched again and pitched heavily over on its side.
 When her dazed senses came back to her, Charlotte lay huddled, bruised, and terrified in a corner of the overturned car. Fearful noises were in her ears, the shrieks of wom- en and the hoarse shouts of men, cru ely hurt or imprisoned under heavy weights. The sound of splintering glass was close to her, and on trem- bling hands and knees she crept up the slanting floor to where man, grooming under his breath with the pain of broken ankle, was using his heavy dress-suit case as a battering ram against window.
 ''It will come in a minute," he called, encouragingly, smashing at the framework and the sharp corners of glass as he saw her white face near him. "Pll get you through. Therep'
 The stranger was thin and wiry, and he worked his head and shoul- ders through and pulled himself slowly out, drawing his breath sharp ly as the broken ankle twinged again. Then he reached in for her. It was not a large opening, and the little bits of glass caught and tore her clothing, but he pulled her safely through and Charlotte gasped in breathless thank fulness as she reached the cool even ing air.
 "Oh, curse this ankle! Look at that" The man groaned at his own impotence to aid. "What can lame man do against that, and with all the poor wretches pinned under these timbers."
 Charlotte pressed her hands to her temples as she followed the direction of his eyes. A creeping tongue of flame had shot up from the far end of car she had left, and the cries of the prisoner broke out with renewed in tensity. She looked at the stranger with new horror in her eyes.
 "Dickw she whispered. "Where is he? Suppose"
 She arose dizzily and ran with lit tie stumbling steps picking her way over the scattered debris. The wrecked cars lay in terrible confusion around her, and ahead were two tel escaped engines, scarcely more than scrap iron now. And nearer her,