The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-13

to spill all over the landscape any min
ute in a collision
Then / jumped on him some more.
just to COW him and square myself. 1t
was a good bluff and it worked fine.
However. l kept the engine going,
for. thinks |. we are going in the right
direction. and if we go back we won [
make that train. and are as liable TO
get ditched as if we keep ahead. But
when I tried to get something out OF
the fireman as TO the road. the distance
and the like he was little better post
ed than /. Luckily, / remembered that
1 had an advertising folder of our road,
containing q map of Ohio and adjoin-
ing states, which / had kept in my
jacket for study at odd moments.
After some study / located our pO-
sitiOn with relative accuracy, and we
appeared to be about thirty miles south
of Benton Junction. where the plug
line of the Wandervelts struck the par
ent stem. As this was east of Mason
City, where our own line crossed, and
whittier we were supposed to be speed
ing, it gave us that much more time
to catch that train east-bound from
Chicago; that is, supposing we got
there at all, of which there seemed to
me good deal of legitimate doubt.
Talk about Captain Kane in Green
tlemen at least knew where they We're
and how TO prepare for danger. Per-
SOnal1y / felt like a cross between a
pirate king and a BANK burglar
think il was the first time in history
that a train got lost and raced across
country on rival line. The cold
sweat was on my brow and goose
flesh came out all over me at every
turn in the road. At any minute 1 ex-
pected to go crashing into a train-fol
this was a single track road. once Is
we swung around a sharp curve j was
certain l saw a headlight just ahead
of me. There was no time to give her
air or even jump. so | shut my eyes
/ and said a prayer-and nothing hap
| pened, 1t was window light in a cot
| tage by the road.
Il have often wished that l could tel
! the story of the incidents of that night
There is fellow called Kipling who
| has done some things or seen some
| things, or at least has written som,
things. 1 wish he had been with m,
/ that night.
Some of you have beeen behind {
safe horse at night driving over wei
| known road and have been scared L
/ death every minute by shadows. WheI
| ! was at school there was a fellow once
read me something from Dante. / nov
| have some fine editions of that Italian
| poet but then 1 could only think abou
his nine degrees of hell and the pun
| ishments that would come TO peopi,
! who made mistakes. Thinks i, if w
| so into a ditch we viii have a Verl
pleasant meeting when Charon take
| us across in a boat. Once we cam.
on a grove of trees where some CAM
meeting people were gathered. The!
| were singing songs about every dal
| being Sunday by and by, or words t
| that effect l thought we were COINS
| right into the camp. and the prospec
of killing some preachers was not L
my mind at all.
You may think this is Imagination
| but when / swept around the curve
| am sure ! saw some angels giving m,
kisses. l would have looked more par
! ticularly but at that moment | saw
some highwaymen in mass trying t,
hold us up. They waved the red lights
| but I went by in a hurry 1t was only
a delusion. We had a good mile to run
! before I turned into one of those OLD
fashioned covered bridges. and l pu
| on full steam. / was by this time pre-
pared for anything, and it made no diff
ference TO me whether IL was breakfas
or death This sounds ridiculous.
| had a talk many years afterward witt
4
and he told me that the only thing tn
natives of that continent feared wa
darkness. They would die cheerful,
in the daylight. but to go ten feet int,
the darkness was more than could b
expected of them.
Il suppose that / like TO live as vel
as any man. but l tell you that il
those moments. when I expected to g
to death all the time, I was worked vi
into a situation that has never bee
described
Il am not a brave man at all.
think am as timid as any, but 1 mad
up my mind that / might as well sc
the end of all things then as any time
and the only thought l had was of tn
girl in the east Some fellow or othe
of whom ] have read said when III
went into battle: Westminster or
peerage.' Thinks I. it is me for a goo
job or a coroner's inquest And be
cause I could think of nothing else
let her go like the evil one. and tina
I am here today is no thanks 10 tn
evil one at all.