The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-13

thinks ], we are going In the right di- rection and if we go back We won make | that train, and are as liable to get ditched as if we keep ahead But when l 1 tried to get something out of the fireman 1 as to the road, the distance, and the like he was little better posted than L Luckily l remembered that I had an ad- vertising folder of our road containing a map of Ohio and adjoining states, i which 1 had kept in my jacket for study at odd moments
 I After some delay I noticed our position with relative accuracy and we appeased 1 to be about thirty miles south of Benton Junction, where the plug line of the ] Wandervelts struck the parent stem. As 1 this was east of Mason City, where our 1 own line crossed and whither We were i supposed to be speeding it gave us that l much more time to catch that train l east-hound from Chicago; that is, sup 1 posing we got there at all, of which there seemed to me a good deal of legit- l innate doubt.
 Talk about Captain Kane in Greenland i or Stanley in Africa-those gentlemen at i least knew where they were and how to l prepare for danger. Personally, felt like i a cross between a pirate king and bank burglar 1 think it was the first time in l 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 l road. At any minute l expected to go l crashing into a train-for this was single i track road Once as we swung around sharp curve was certain I saw. head I light just ahead of me- There was no time to give her air or even jump, so l shut my eyes and said a prayer-and i nothing happened It was a window light in cottage by the road.
 q have often wished that I could tell the story of the incidents of that night. ] There is a fellow called Kipling who l has done some things or seen some things 1 or at least has written some things. l wish he had been with me that night.
 Some of you have been behind @ safe horse at night driving over a wel-known road, and have been scared to death every minute by shadows. When 1 was 1 at school there was fellow once read me something from Dante. I now have some fine edition of that Italian poet, but then l could only think about his nine degrees of hell and the punish l ments that would come to people who made mistakes. Thinks l, if We go into ditch we will have 8 very pleasant meeting when Charon takes us across in the boat. Once we came to a grove of trees where some camp-meeting people i about every day being Sunday by and by, or words to that effect. I thought we were going right into the camp, and the prospect of killing some preachers was not to my mind at all.
 You may think this Is imagination, but when I swept around the curve I am sure l saw some angels giving me kisses. I would have looked more par ! ticularly, but at that moment l saw some l iOh vVq xyr11 ian in frxris1 fn hn1 up: They waved the red lights, but I went by in hurry. It was only de- fusion. We had a good mile of run be- fore turned into one of those old fashioned covered bridges. and I put on full steam. I was by this time pre- pared for anything, and 1t made no diff ference with me whether it was break fast or death. This sounds ridiculous. had talk many years afterward with Stanley, who went all through Africa, and he told me that the only thing the natives of that continent feared was darkness They would die cheerfully in the daylight, but to go ten feet into the darkness was more than could be ex- pected of them.
 'I suppose that like to live as well as any man, but I tell you that In thosS moments, when expected to go to deate all the time, I was worked up into a situation that has never been described.
 'I am not a brave man at all. I think am as tirnid as any, but made LII my mind that I might as well see the end of all things then as any time, and the only thought had was of the girl in the east. Some fellow or other of whom l have read said when he went into battle: Westminster or a peerage.' Thinks I, it is me for good job or coroner's inquest. And because I could think of nothing else I let her go like the evil one, and that I am here today Is no thanks to the evil one at all.
 By this time I was almost mad. Of course you will say I ought to have stopped and backed up or, at least, held up at some station sidetrack and reused an operator. I didn't for several req sons. In the first place. there was chance to make Benton Junction on this foreign road and meet those Chicago men if I kept on giving the old teapot her maximum speed. Of course, we might get ditched, but I figured out that if gave away the situation to anybody my career as railroad man was ended, and possibly that of a criminal in fine striped cloth was just opening More over the longer I thought of 1t the surer 1t seemed to me that the only chance was to bluff 1t out I wasn't sleepy by this time, you can gamble. but was near to being a maniac, so I concluded to let her go gallagher for election and take my chances. As for the millionaires be- hind me, I didn't care a rap. I wanted to save my own bacon.
 "So the fireman kept piling in the coal, and we made fair speed, but the road was steep and crooked, and had to use a lot of steam keeping the whistle sound ing most of the time, and this brought on a rather unexpected complication.
 .'The conductor had been asleep in the express car, as he had also been 48 hours on duty, and expected to wake up back at the junction we had missed so cu- riously. When he heard the whistle go- ing he came to In hurry, and 1t wasn't long before he looked out and took in the situation. Then he gave me the bell to stop, but I surmised what he was up to and kept right on He did this five or six times and then I guess he thought the engine was running away or I was crazy, so he comes forward, climbing over the back of the tender, the maddest man in Ohio except my self.
 "Our line of conversation was interest ing and brief We cussed each other as long as we had any breath. Then the conductor demanded to know what I was doing on 8 foreign road. l told him to go chase himself. He evidently thought I was insane, and was convinced when I told him I had my orders, which he demanded to see. I told him that if he hadn't been asleep at the junction he | would have his own duplicate. This