Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-21

he stood at the switch. he called to Nose,
who had arisen, and was stanoihe VI,
! the car platform, to set the brake aho
started back to call the engineer oo"n
to pick 1t up.
but, glancing around. however, after
he had gone a short distance, ne was
astonished to see the caboose silPpins
down the main line. while Nose. dengnt-
ed with the sensation of increasing
speed, was standing grinning back at MIN
like Cheshire cat. :, 49,
Running back with all speed, the
brakeman shouted to Nose to set the
brakes, but it was all Sanscrit to NOSE
who didn't know a car brake from drlV-
ing-rod. He thought poor soul. that the
man was gesticulating at him to nave q
good time and so he~ waved his arms
and shouted back q wild primitive yen OF
delight, while faster and faster the car
slipped down the grade.
Then the brakeman, finding ne coui9
not oyertake the fleeing caboose, turned
back, and as he did SO he caught sight OF
the smoke Of the passenger train some
where about Front Royal. Frozen and
speechless with the thought, he hurried
up to me, who had not seen the occur
renee from where l stood behind a string
of cars, and pulling me out, pointed to
the caboose, now more than hundred
yards down the mountain and gaining
speed every moment.
In the vague hope that the mail train
A~-~S
the telegraph Office and seizing the key,
called up that town.
1.-The passenger train. so Front Royal
licked back, had just left
IT Immediately dispatched four men on
a pump-car and with a pocket telegraph
to follow the wild caboose and report to
me whatever the catastrophe might be.
1t was the one time in my life that
prayed for car to jump the track; for.
as far as I could see, the only hope of
salvation for the passenger train that was
probably even then putting its way up the
mountain grade, was for Nose and his
caboose to jump the track. Otherwise,
he would crash into that devoted train
with a driving shock that would spread
utter destruction.
And thus while some hurried down
the grade, the rest of US sat there in
agony, unable to do anything, our 1magi-
nations picturing the frightful wreck that
had not yet-but that we knew must
happen within a few minutes.
But none of these narrowing thoughts
were disturbing Nose. AS the car, gain
ing momentum with every turn OF the
wheel, on the steep mountain grade, SLID
swiftly out Of sight down the hill, the
darby, who thought all this was treat
prepared for him by tho kind railroad
folks. moved out to the front platform
to get a better view of the scenery that
was now hurrying by.
Taking his stand by the brake handle.
Nose drank in the wind by that whistled
past his ears. while the caboose reeled
drunkenly around the curves. Nose
swayed joyously with it. They ratified
over quivering bridges, they Numbered
deep fills and roared through black tun-
nels-Mose and the caboose! And all the
time the devoted car whirled faster and
faster on it's devoted way.
LAS they whizZed through the little
settlement Of Mapping q gang Of aston
ished section hands had just time to
leap from the track as the flying car,
sweeping without warning out of q cut,
shot by at the speed of fully sixty miles
an hour. But some Of them were able
to glimpse upon the front platform q
grinning darby, waving gleefuily to
them and believing out some old song
of camp-meeting time-and never about
him the slightest expression of fear! At
man. hearing the thunder Of the ap-
preaching cab. and knowing there was
no train due from up the mountain. for
g. moment suspected the trouble, Tor
years before, another car with broken
brake had run away down that hill:
leaped the track at Happy Creek and
killed all hands. But even as the
thought of turning the switch ana
wrecking the car to save the mail train
formulated itself in his brain Nose ana
his caboose went laundering, gathering,
roaring by, and were gone!
X
THE pace grew faster: fire snapped
from the spinning, whirring, hummin9
wheels; as they sung their song OF
triumph to the speed god. while the car,
dashing down tangent, would strike
a curve, and the fiange, driven by the
tremendous momentum, would bite on
the rail and ride upon It, for an instant,
only to drop back with a sickening
lurch For weeks after that wild ride,