Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1921-07-21

AAA0h 4 11tA wv IloN %SSOIsl
Jump off and go running back, and
who, of course, didn't know that we
had our a there, was apparently
trying to reach the switch behind his
train to throw it against the following
engine to shoot it off on the "Y."
BY this time the boss was off of our
engine and racing across the angle Of
the ~" only a little way behind (Kir-
Ngan. He realized that his plan was
smashed by the stopping of the spe-
cial, and that the very catastrophe we
had come out to try to prevent was
due to happen right there and then.
Whatever u man waiting at the
switch might do, there was bound to
be a collision. If he left the points
set for the main line, the wild engine
would crash into the rear end of the
stopped special; and If he did the 9th
er thing, u engine and coach stand
ing on the .sY'' would get it.
'Get the people out of that carl" I
heard the boss below, but even as he
said it the pop-valve Of the stopped
engine went off with a roar, filling the
shut-in valley with clamorings that
nothing could drown.
Two minutes, two little minutes
more, and the ~sleep-sodden bunch of
men in the specials car might have
been reused and turned out and saved.
But the minutes were not given us.
While the racing fireman was still a
feWsfeet short of the switch the throw
ing of which would have saved the
one-car train only to let the madman's
engine in on our engine and coach, and
our man-already at the switch-was
too scared to know which horn of the
dilemma to choose, the end came.
There was the flash Of another head
light on the curve, another whistle
shrek, and I turned to help the major
take Mrs. Sheila off our car and run
with her, against the horrible chance
that we might get it instead of the
special.
But we didn't get it. Ten seconds
later the chasing engine had crashed
headlong into the standing train, bury
ing itself clear up to the tender in the
heart of the old wooden sleeper, roll
ing the whole business over on it's side
in the ditch. and setting the wreck
age afire as suddenly as If the old
Pullman had been a fagot of pitch-pine
kindlings and only waiting for the
match.
If / could write down any real de-
scription of the way things stacked up
there in that lonesome valley for the
little bunch Of us who stood aghast at
the awful horror, / guess I wouldn't
need to be hammering the keys of a
typewriter in a. railrnud Office. But
never mind; no soldier sees any more
of a battle than the part he is In.
There were seven Of us men, includ-
ing the engineer and fireman Of the
special, who were able to jump in and
try to do something, and, looking back
at it now. 1T seems ais IL we all did
what we could.
That wasn't much. About half Of
the people in the sleeping-car-six by
actual count, as we learned after
Ward-were killed outright in the
crash or SO badly hurt that they died
pretty 0 o afterward; and the fire
was so quick and so hot that after
we had got the wounded ones out we
couldn't get all of the bodies OF the
others.
AS you'd imagine, the boss was the
hood on1gFpnnt of +ho+ Ga~ao 49,,
fight. He had stripped off his coat,
and he kept on diving into the burn
Ing wreck after another and yet an
other of the victims until it seemed as
III he couldn't possibly do it one more
time and come out alive. He didn't
seem to remember that these very men
We're the one who had been trying to
ruin him-that at least once they had
set a trap for him and tried to kill
him. He was too big for that.
After we had got out all the victims
we could reach, there was still one
more left who wasn't dead; we could
hear him above the kissing of the
steam and the cracking of the flames,
screaming and begging us to break in.
the side of the car and kill him be-
fore the fire. got to him. Kirgan had
found an ak in the emergency box of
q day-coaeh, and wa chopping away
like a mailman.
The minute he got a hole big enough,
the big master-mechanics dropped his
ak and climbed down into the chok-
ing hell where the screams were com
Ing from. Our fireman picked up the
ak and ran around TO the other side
of the wreck where Jones, the en-
gineer of the special, and his fireman
Were trying to break into the crushed
cab of the 416.
The old major, the boss, and / stood,
by to help Kirgan, and the minute.
his head came up through the chopped
hole we saw that he needed help. He.
had pried the screaming msn loose.
somehow, and was trying to drag him
up out Of the smoking furnace. 1t was
done, amongst us, some way or other
KiFgan d WraDne man M IN !,