Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1902-10-25
SATURDAY, OCTOBER IS.
ENGINEER'S CLOSE CALL.

ing on the wall that separated his room from
mine. "Do you want to 60"
The doctor was the railroad surgeon. The
wreck, he said, was caused by washout,
and the wrecking train was waiting to take
us to the scene.
Three miles beyond Weston, where the
road straiCItens out on long down grade,
was the wreck. The heavy through freight
train had gone through culvert about three
o'clock that morning. The lookout who had
been riding on the engine had seen, in the
glare Of the headlights above him, the gleam
Of the rails across the little gully at the
bottom of the hill, and the gully itself run
ming half full of water. He had seen the
cross ties in their places, and he thought
the track was sound. What he did not see
was that the cribbing of ties on which the
track had been laid across the gully had
been washed out.
If he had been standing on the ground he
might have noticed the sag of the track
where the cribbing had gone; but the rock
ing of the engine disturbed his vision. The
engineer and fireman in the cab behind him,
straining their eyes over the track ahead,
saw no more than he, and the big train
smashed into the gully. The engine got
nearly across before the track gave way.
Then the strain broke the coupling and
the first of the freight cars dived under the
engine ard blocked up the gully. The en-.
CINE sank back on the wreck, and the box
cars jammed themselves into the locomotive
in hopeless tangle.
When the trainmen recovered from the
shock and ran forward to see what was the
matter they found Keefer, the lookout, ly.
ing on the bank of the gully with broken
leg. He never knew how he got there, but
he must have been pitched backward as
the engine went down rear end first. Cos
tello, the fireman, was pinned into the cab
by the roof of the box car. Billy Hayes, the
engineer, had been thrown forward through
his cab window and was caught by the leg
between the injector and the drive wheel.
II was about ten o'clock when we reached
the wreck, and Hayes had been suffering
desperate agony for seven hours, but he
had not fniched or shown a sign of weak
ening, the men told me, in all that time.
And, although he knew it must yet be
hours before he could be taken out, if in.
deed he could ever be got out at all, he kept
q stout heart.
The heavy guard over the rear drive-wheel
had been twisted up and in toward the in.
jector. Hayes was caught by the wreck,
and for q few minutes after the accident it
had poured a stream of boiling hot water
on his back.
He told his mates how he was caught, but
they could not help. They had no tools for
such work as must be done to release him,
and the best they could do was to stand on
the bank of the gully and shout encourage
ment to him. They had sent for help, and
until the wreckers came there was nothing
to do but wait.
While they waited new peril rose, which
none had foreseen, and which proved anew
the courage of Billy Hayes. The wreck
had fallen in such a manner that it acted
as q wing.dam across the gully, and the
men watching on the bank noticed that the
water was rising rapidly. Hayes saw it,
too, and thought that il it would only rise
high enough it would ease little the pain
Of his scalded back.
He watched the water bubbling and rush,
ing about him, and saw in the gray light
Of the dawn how thick and yellow with
mud it was. Steadily and with amazing
wiftness the water rose. Then one Of the
watchers on the bank saw what made the
hearts OF them all beat more quickly with
the sudden realization OF a new danger.
The water was rising below the wreck, al
most as rapidly as it rose above it.
Then they understood. It was not the
dam Of wreckage that was swelling the
gully stream; it was the new flood from
the nights rain. The fields had been soaked
full by the heavy rainfall, and it seemed as Il
all the water that had fallen that night
had to be carried of by that gully. The
stream rose above Hayes waist, and the
grateful uuenchinq of the fire in his bach
made him forget how fast the water ad' |
vanced. A man on the bank was marking
its rapid oncoming BY little pegs stuck in
the mud.
In August the day comes swiftly after the
dawn. In the full light Of the morning
Hayes saw the sullen clouds drifting swiftly
aeross the low hilltops, gathering their
forces for another downpour.
He turned q quick, anxious glance ut the
men on the bank, and looked down again
ct the water. It climbed over his breast /
and touched his neck. It seemed TO fas-
cinate him. With almost unwinking gaze
be watched IL. Il swirled about his throat
and still he looked down at it. His mates
shouted to him to hold on. He made no
reply. The water touched on his chin.
Not Q man in the little crowd would have
blamed him II he had dropped his head and
ended it all; but the indomitable courage OF
the man prevailed. He took new grip on
the sand pipe and pulled himself up as far
~ he could. He threw his head back and
turned his chin upward, and in his white
lace his mates saw the determination never
10 give up until the food actually ever.
whelmed him.
They were strong msn, hard-headed a.
hard-fstsd. and not afraid But not many