Omaha daily bee., 1903-02-08

the platform a good twenty steps, l few
to where the dispatcher stood.
Stop this traini' cried-screamed. as
he efterward told me.
The last car-the sleeper, OF course
was in front Of us. The engineer was in
his cab. looking ahead; the fireman was
busy shoveling coal into the glaring fur
mace: the conductor had disappeared into
the smoker. Not a living soul was in sight
Hears Their Cries.
Captain Armstrong did not ask me why
I wanted the train stopped; there was no
time for explanations; my word was sum
client. He instinctively started to run to-
ward the last end Of the sleeper. as he
thought to jump aboard. a feat which would
have cost him his life, however. as the
train YVES already under full swing. The
start he made, however. proved lucky, for
by some providential occurrence the Pull
man conductor opened the rear door and
looked out. He sad later that. he had no
object in view whatever; he just walked
back and opened the door without knowing
wha. for.
Pull the bell, for Gods sake!' the dis
patcher called out. at the same time rails
ing and lowering his lantern.
las every one knows, the Pullman con-
ductor has nothing whatever to do with the
running or controlling OF the train which
hauls his car, and this man seemed to pay
absolutely no attention. He made no move
| that we could see toward reaching for the
bell cord; he just stood like a statue in the
doorway Of that Pullman car until the dark
ness hid him from view.
"a few hundred yards below the station
the road curved sharply to the west. and
almost before we knew what had happened
the train was lost to view.
"And there was no telegraph office be-
tween 'Sa' and 'Cs'!
Captain Armstrong turned to me and
lifting his lantern so that Il threw a glare
of white light into my face, he looked
Just one look, and then, dropping his arms
to his sides, exclaimed, God help them!'
HE had seen my face-that was enough
the trains would collide. He read it all in
my ashen face.
"'Whewi w-h-e-w! w-H-E-wu came the
hoarse echo Of the engine whistle a mile
or more away from the station, which
meant that the Pullman conductor had rung
the bell; the train was coming back!
1.-THE strain had been too much for me;
/ sank to the platform utterly collapsed
And there l lay in the snow for fully two
minutes. The very snow and cold revived
me-, however, and as soon as L could speak
I could think of nothing more than Thank
Cod
1--WE took the special orders away from
No. I and sent her off with the understand
ing that she was to run by book, as was
also No. 10.
Poor McCabe, dear old Frank, what-o OF
him? He was Observation-Disclosures and
blacklistcd; he was never allowed to even
enter an Office Of the company afterwardI
and l have not heard from him since, ex-
cept that he went up in the northwest
somewhere.
Although official investigation showed
that McCabe was entirely to blame, that
he failed to see that his red curtain really
did drop over his light when he released
the cord, and all that, / felt at the time
and have always felt, that he was entirely
blameless or almost entirely blameless.
HE told us that he dropped his light
and that 1t showed red after No. 10 had
passed without stopping, but No. 10 re-
ported that Salem showed a white light
A a matter Of fact, although 1 did moi
feel justified in saying so at the time,
always believed that McCab dropped his
red curtain all right enough and that he
thought he felt the weight of the curtain
mechanism jerk the cord when he released
1t. but that the mechanism caught in somC
way. holding the curtain up or partly up
until the engine passed under it. when tho
Jar of the train released the slight hitch
and let the curtain drop-too late.
Calculations showed that had No. Z got
ten away from the dispatcher's office will
special orders and No. 10 without them, the
two heavily loaded passenger trains would
have met near a wide curve and at the tor
of an embankment, where both would have
plunged into a swollen stream Of water
ice and boulders, in which no living thing
could have survived many minutes; II
would have been the most appalling dis
aster in history.
"And yet it was averted by the quicl
wit of the man who bore all the blame"