Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-07-01
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
few feet 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 turned to help the major
take Mrs. Sheila Off our car and run
with her. against the horrible chance
that we might get 1t instead of the
special.
But we didn't get 1t. 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 Its side
in the ditch. and setting the wreck
age aflre as suddenly as If the old
Pullman had been fagot Of pltch-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 railroad Office. But
never mind; no soldier sees any more
of battle than the part ne Ia 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 1t now. 1t seems as II 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 soon 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
head and front Of that fierce rescue
fight. He had stripped OF his coat.
and he kept on diving into the burn
Ing wreck after another and vet an.
other Of the victims until 1t seemed as
II he couldn't possibly do 1t one more
time and come out olive. He didn't
seem to remember that these very men
were the ones who had been trying to
ruin him-that at least once they had
set 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 aud kill him be-
fore the fire got to him. Kirgan had
found an az in the emergency box of
our day-coach. and was chopping away
like q mailman.
: The minute he got a hole big enough,
the big master-mechanic dropped his
ak and climbed down into the chok-
ing hell where the screams were COM
Ing from. Our fireman picked up the
az 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 man loose,
somehow, and was trying to drag him
up out Of the smoking furnace. It was
done. amongst us, some way or other.
Klrgan had wrapped the man up in D
Pullman blanket to keep the fire from
getting at him any worse than It al
ready had, and as we were taking him
out the blanket slipped aside from his
face and saw who it was that the
master-mechanic had risked his life