The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-10-07

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aRssals
The Engine and the Cars Plunged
HeadIong Into the River.
wreck which was burning There had
been bridge over stream which now
was almost dry. The first span of the
bridge had been blown up, and engine
and cars plunged headlong into the
bed Of the river.
Tt was bad wreck indeed. The men
of Jim's battalion who had escaped
serious injury and the cavalrymen from
the following train were pulling form
after form out of the ruins of the cars.
They put out the flames now with
water from the stream. At last long
Another row of the desperately injured
lay awaiting removal The country
road was full of farmers carts and
men with improvised stretchers bear
ing moaning and delirious men to the
nearest shelters. Jim found himself
sick and shaky as he set himself to
help.
This dynamiting bridge In front OF
a troop train was, of course, simply an
act of war. This was only the carrying
out of one of the many score of such
plans as he had read in the secret or.
ders to the regents agents In the
house of the spies-those orders which
Marion Marlatt had been helping to
prepare. But the horror, the barbarity
| of these orders had not been able to
reach him In full till now. This-these
| rows of dead. those lines of dying and
| mangled men, destroyed not in fair bat
| tie, but by stealth or treachery while
they were asleep-this was what one OF
those orders meant.
Could Marion Marlatt have realized
| it, Jim challenged himself almost con.
tinually as he worked. Could she
| that lovely little woman whom he had
| left on that white bed-could she have
had any part at all In this? She had
lain like child I'm his arms. And now
she f1ared at him and brought the blood
hot to his cheeks when she denied thai
| she was spyi oh, was it possible
| that she knew nothing of this? Might
| it be that his accusation of her had
driven her to leap from the train thai
moment when he turned away, and
| that she had no knowledge that the
bridge there was about TO be destroyed.
Jim was steadier and stronger while
he was convincing himself Of that.
| Now everything had been done which
| might be done for the injured jim
turned away from the wreck and wan
dered back toward the house where he
had left Marion Marlatt. He went IL
through the open door. The house had
become tiny hospital, and in the spare
room where Marion Marlatt had beer
a recruit now lay with country doc
tor working over him.
where is she-the girl I brough
hereT Jim demanded of the woman.
"Oh, we brought her about RICH
quickT the woman boosted. She
/ wasn't hurt much-the lovely little
lady. She was only bit faint and
dizzy"
where did she go?''
The woman didn't know. She sup
posed the girl went down toward ths
wreck. Anyway, she went out by her
self and quite all right, the woman
thought, though in queer clothes.
| The notes of q bugle call echoed Owe
the field Jim did not recognize tn,
call. but its meaning was obvious. Thi
scattered infantrymen and cavalrymeI
were being recalled. Jim returned t
west had come up and stopped behind
the troop train which had brought tn.
cavalry. The headlight Of west
bound train glared al the wreck from
the other side of the river. Other traini
stood in long line behind it Some o
the passengers from those trains from
the east crossed the river and mingled
with the soldiers. These passenger
We're refugees. FOO Of the sort which
Jim had seen in the station at Chicago
Jim heard first from one of these refu
gees-a woman-that soldiers under tn
direction OF officers were stripping Ger
tain of the dead so that live soldier
could wear their uniforms.
| An hour after sunrise the train a
last got away. By noon. runnin;
through Ohio, it began TO pass trains
eull of refugees who had fed from the
coast after it was known that the
American feet was destroyed. Com
pafly f ate once during the day. 1t was
at Cleveland, about 3 o'clock in thf
afternoon The train stopped there t
change engines. There were no ar
engagements made TO supply the sol
diers. The company officers learned
that the train would stay there for al
least half an hour, and every one was
told to go out and forage for himself.
Jim gazed ont the open window a
his elbow. A wide river with higf