Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-06-05


tunnel might be as short as possible;
second, we must be near the stream in
order to get rid of the dirt we got out.
But I'm not going to bore you with
this part of my story. / will only say
that we were successful in digging our
way out and one dark night all three
found ourselves crawling away from
human slaughter pen, much preferring
to die than return to 1t. AS soon as
we had gone far enough to feel safe
fram the sentinel we got up and hur-
ried away northward We travelled all
might anrf'Sr tis.sss Z. set :. de.rlzy 10 hide
us In his cabin. The next night we set
out again, and, as 1t was clear, we
guided our course by the north star
Two weeks after we left the stock
ade we found ourselves on a railroad
track, nearly starved to death. We
We're desperate enough to attack a
train, but no train came along. 1t was
night, and we concluded to walk along
the track, and If we struck small sta
tion we intended to get something to
eat or die in the attempt. Within a
mile we reached station, but 1t was
a pretty big one, and meal station at
that We were spying around from
distance when we heard the slow puff
of freight locomotive. In short
time 1t drew up at the station, and the
engineer, fireman and several brake
men went in and sat down to meal
An idea popped into the heads of all of
us at once. After few whispered
words we went for the locomotive. l,
who had once worked In a locomotive
shop, got into the cab, Bassford on to
the tender, while Buck pulled the pin
out of the coupling. While he was get
ting aboard pulled back the reverse
lever and opened the throttle. OF course
we couldn't get away without any
sound, and the men came flying to the
train. The engineer was first and, as
: we were moving slowly, tried to climb
into the cab, but Bassford struck at
him with an iron poker, and he let go.
Before any of the others could come up
we were going too fast for them.
Now, we would have cut the telo-
graph wire, but we had no tool to cut
i
was a long distance to any important
station before us, northwest, and we
had a better chance than we thought.
In couple Of miles we passed fork
In the railroad branching to the south
east, and it turned out that the engl-
neer had telegraphed to station on
the branch road where there was a To-
comotlve. We had made about ten
miles more when we caught sight of a
headlight behind and knew we were
pursued.
1t was plain that the engine behind
us was coming at a furious rate, for
the headlight rapidly grew bigger, and
at last we could hear the rattle of the
machine coming at a sixty mile gait.
The two others came to my side of the
cab, and we held q consultation. We
were well provided with fuel but we
had only freight engine, whereas our
pursuers must have passenger loco
motive. If we stopped and took to the
woods, we should surely be captured
before many hours, and that meant Ell
ther return to the stockade or death
While we were celebrating Buck
espied an oil can. 1t flashed through
his mind to oil the tracks behind us
He seized the can. but l, who saw an
up grade ahead, told him to wait till
we reached its bottom. Meanwhile
Bassford found another can, and when
we got to the proper place they poured
oil from the rear of the tender on both
rails.
We had a rise of about mile. The