The Progressive West Virginian. [volume] (Williamson, W. Va.) 1911-1913, 1912-12-26


like bolster hurled through the car.
He brought up with a sickening slam
across the seat into which Marjorie
had been jounced back with breath
taking slam. And then Kathleen
came flying backwards and landed in
a heap on both of them.
Several of the other passengers
were just returning from breakfast
and they were shot and scattered all
over the car as if great chain OF hui
man beads had burst.
Women screamed, men yelled, and
then while they we're still struggling
against the seats and one another, the
train came to a halt
Thank God, we stopped in time!"
Mallory gasped, as he tried to olsen
gage himself and Marjorie from Kath-
leen.
The 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 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 was cracking a joke at
Marjorie's expense. Everybody felt
good-natured grudge against her for
being such a mystery. The car was
ringing with hilarity, when the por-
ter came stumbling in and paused at
the door, with eyes all white, hands
waving frantically, and lips Tapping
like flannel, in vain effort to speak.
The passengers stopped laughing at
Marjorie, to laugh at the porter. Ash
ton sang out:
What's the matter with you, por-
teri? Are you trying to crow?a
Everybody roared at this, till the
porter finally managed to articulate:
T-t-t-train rob-rob-robbers!
Silence shut down as if the whole
crowd had been smitten with paraly-
sis. From somewhere outside and
ahead came pop-popping as OF fire.
crackers. Everybody thought, RE
volvers!" The reports were mingled
with barbaric yells that turned the
marrow in every bone to snow.
These regions are full 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 the
evening before and ruined several
breakfasts that morning in the dining
car, by regaling the passengers with
stories of pioneer ordeals, men and
women massacred in burning wagons,
or dragged away to fendish cruelty
and obscene torture, staked out supine
on burning wastes with eyelids cut
on, bound down within reach OF rat
tlesnakes, subjected to every misery
that human deviltry could devise.
Ashton had brought his fellow pas
sengers to state of ecstatic .excit-
ability, and, like many a recounter Of
cfn of piob
his own nerves to high tension
The violent stopping of the train,
the heart-shaking yells and shots out
side, found the passengers already apt
to respond without delay to the ap-
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, Hke horse with
the blind staggers then bolted down
the aisle, knocking aside men and
women. He climbed on seat, pulled
down an upper berth, and, scrambiing
into 1t, tried to shut 1t on himself.
Mrs. Whitcomb was so frightened that
she assailed Ashton with fury and
selling his feet, dragged him back in
to the aisle, and beat him with her
fists, demanding that he protect her
and save her for Sammys sake
Mrs. Fosdick, rushing out Of her
stateroom and not finding her lus-
cious-eyed husband, laid hold of Jim.
mie Wellington and ordered him to
60 to the rescue of her spouse Mrs.
Wellington tore her hands loose, cry
ing: Let him go, madam. He has a
wife OF his own to defend"
Jimmie was trying to pour out dy.
ing messages. and only sputtering, for
getting that he had put his watch in
his mouth to hide 1t, though it's chain
was still attached to his waistcoat
Anne Cattle, who had read much
about Chinese atrocities to mission.
aries, gave herself up to death, yet re-
joiced greatly that she had provided
a timely man to lean on and should
not have to enter Paradise spinster
providing she could manage to con.
vert Ira in the next few seconds, be
fore 1t was everlastingly too late. She
was begging her first heather to join
her In a gospel hymn. BIT Ira was
roaring curses like pirate captain in
a hurricane, and swearing that the
villains should not rob him of his
bride.
Mrs. Temple wrung her twjtching
hands and tried to drag her husband
to his knees, crying: