The spectator., 1921-07-12

steam and the cracking of the flames, screaming and begging us to break i'll the side of the car and kill him be- fore the fire got to him. kirgan had found an aX in the emergency box of our day coach, and was chopping away like q madman.
 The minute he got hole big enough, the big master-mechanic dropped his aX and climbed down into the chok- ing hell where the screams were com ing from. Our fireman picked up the aX and ran around to the other side of the wreck where Jones, the ell 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 pred the screaming man loose, somehow, and was trying to drag him up out of the smoking furnace. IL was done. amongst Us, some way or other. u Pullman blanket to keep the fire from getting at him any worse than il al ready had. and as We were taking him out the blanket slipped aside from his face and l saw who il was that the master-mechauic- had riSked his life for. II was Hatch, himself and he died in our arms. the majors and mtne while We were carrying him out to where Mrs. Sheila was tearing one of the Pullman sheets that I had got hold of into strips to make bandaSeS for the wouHdpN.
 With the chance Of saving maybe another one or two, we couldn't stay to help the brave little woman who Wus trying to be doctor and nurse to half Il dozen poor wretehes at once. But sHc took time to ask he one single hre9thleS@ question:
 Have they found him Yet3-you know the one mean, Iiumiet7
 No. l said. "Theyre digging aWaY al that side uoW." and then ran back to jump in again.
 Though the fire WaS now licking at everything in sight, kirgaa, who had taken the ax from our fireman, had managed to eut some of the ear tilu= hers out of the NAY so that Nc could see down into the taugte of things where the cab of the 4IG ought To have been. There wasn't much left ot the cab, The W8ter- gauge was broken. tI# ,,EfFB fii spite of the reek of smoke and steam we could see That Hogan aud his tire- man were uat there. But down under the coal that had shifted forward al the impact of the collision We could make uut the other man-the murder HaHiae-iyHg on his back. black ill the face aud saspins.
 That WAS enough for the boss. II locked like certain death for anybody to crawl down into that hissing ~team- bath, but he did 1t, wriggliug through the hole that kirgau had chopped. while two or three of uS ran t0 the little creek that triekIed down on the far side of the "I" and brought back soaking Pullman blankets to try to de- lay the eneroaching fire aud smother the steam-ietS.
 couldn't see very well what the bQSs was doing; the smoke and steam were so biuding But when did get q glimpse SAW that he was digging frantically with his bare hands at the shifted coal, and that he had sue cceded in freeing the head and shoul- ders of the buried man, who was still alive enough to choke and gasp in the furnaee-likG heat
 KirGan stood it as long aS he could until the licking flames were about to drive LIS all away.
 "Youll he burnt alive--comc up out of that" he yelled to the boss but l knew it wouldn't do any good With Collingwood still buried down there and still with the breath of life in him. the boss was going to stay and keep on trying to dig him out, even if he. himself got burned to d crisp do- ing it. Loving Mrs. Sheila the way he did. he couldn't do any less.
 It was awful, those next two or three minutes. We were all running frantically back and forth, now. be- tween the wreck and the creek. soak ing the blankets and doing our level best to beat the fire back and keep il from cutting off the only way there was for the boss to climb out. But We could only fight gaspiugly on the sur face of things, aS you might say. Down underneath, the fire was working around in front and behind in spite of all we could do Some of il had got to the coal, and the heavy >uphurous smoke was ooZing up to make us all choke and strangle.
 Honestly, you couldn't have told that the boss was white man when he craWled up out of that pit of death, tugging and lifting the crushed and bfokeu body of the madman, and mak-