Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1912-08-29

came nylng backwards and landed IL
a heap on both OF them.
Several OF the other passengers
We're just returning from breakfast
and they Were shot and scattered al
over the car as ii a great chain of hu
man beads had burst.
Women screamed, men yelled, anC
then while they were still struggling
against the seats and one another, the
train came to a halt.
THANK God, We stopped in timel'
Mallory gasped, as he tried to Olsen
gage himself and Marjorie from Kath.
leen.
n passengers began to regain
their courage with their equilibrium,
Little Jimmie WELLINGTON had flown
the whole length of the car. clinging
TO his wife as if she were Francesca
da Rimini, and he Paolo, fitting
through Inferno. The flight ended at
the stateroom door with such a thump
that Mrs. Fosdick was sure a detec.
tive had come for her at last, and
with a battering ram.
But when Jimmie got back breath
enough TO talk, he remembered the
train-stopping excitement of the day
before and called out:
Has Mrs. Mallory lost that pup
again."
Everybody laughed uproariously at
this. People will laugh at anything
or nothing when they have been.
frightened almost to death and sud-
denly relieved of anxiety.
Everybody vas cracking a Joke at
MarJorte's expense. Everybody felt a
g~ood-natured grudge against her for
being such a mystery. The car was
ringing with hilarity, when the Dor
ter came stumbling in and paused at
the door, with eyes all white, hands
waving frantically, and lips napping
like flannel, in a vain effort to sneak.
The passengers stopped laughing at
Marjorie, to laugh at the porter. Ash.
ton sang out:
WHATS the matter with you, por-
ter? Are you trying to crow"
Everybody roared at this, till the
porter finally managed to a~rticulate:
'I-t-t-train rob-rob-robbers!"
Silence shut down as if the whole
crowd had been smitten with paraIy-
SIS From somewhere outside and
ahead came a pop-popping as Of fire
crackers. Everybody thought, Re
VoIyers!" The reports were mingled
with barbaric yells that turned the
marrow in every bone to snow.
These regions are fun OF historic
terror, All along the Nevada route
the conductor, the brakemen and old
travellers had pointed out scene after
scene where the Indians had slaked
the thirst of the arid land with white
mans blood. Ashton, who had trav.
eled this way many times, had made
himself ~fascinatingly horrifying tbe
evening before and ruined several
breakfasts that morning in the dining.
car by regaling the passengers with
stories OF pioneer ordeals. men and
women m~assacred in burning wagons
or dragged away to tiendish cruelty
n obscene torture, staked ont sunine
on burning wastes with eyelids cut
on bound down within reach of rat.
~tlesnakes, subjected to every misery
ina human deviltry could devise.
ASHTON had hrprgb+ bi- F-II-..
sengers to a state of ecstatic excit.
ability, and, like many a ]recounter Of
burglar stories at night, had tuned
MS own nerves to high tension.
The violent stopping OF the train,
the Notwithstanding yeIls and shots out
side, found the passengers already ant
to respond without delay to the an.
peals OF fright. After the first hush
OF dread, came the reaction to panic,
Each passenger showed his own
panic in his own way. Ashton whirled
round and round, like a horse with
the blind staggers, then bolted down
the aisle, knocking aside men and
women. He climbed on a seat. pulled
1o|n an upper berth, and, scrambliDg
into 1t, tried to shut it on himself.
Mrs. Whitcomb was SO frightened that
assailed Ashton with fury and
his feet, dragged him back in.
TO the aisle, and beat him with her
lsts, demanding that he protect her
and save her for Sammy's sake.
AZ
Mrs. Fosdick, rushing out of her
5tateroom and not finding her lus-
2lous-eyed husband, laid hold OF Jim.
ME Wellington and ordered him to
to the rescue of her pouse Mrs.
wellington tore her hands loose, cry
ng: Let him go, madam. He has a
vile Of his own to defend"
Jimmie was trying TO pour out dy-
messages, and only suffering, for.
getting that he had pat his watch in
lis mouth to hide it, though its chain
vas still attached to his waistcoat.
Anne Cattle, who had read much
Chinese atrocities to mission
-ries, gave herself up to death, yet re-
DICED greatly that she had provided
timely man to lean on and should
lot have to enter Paradise a spinster. !
'roviding she could manage to con-
'ert Ira in the next few seconds, be-
ore 1t was everlastingly too late. She
vas begging her first heather to join =
.er in a gospel hymn, But Ira was I
caring curses like a pirate captain in
hurricane, and swearing that the I
illains should not rob him of his