Year: 1875

us was the town of Schwartz, on the


Vistula; and at the rate we were going
we should be there in few minutes
for each minute carried US over a mile
| The shrieks of the passengers now rose
above the crash of the rails, and more
terrible than all else arose the demoniac
yells of the mad engineer.


'.Merciful heavens I" gasped the
guardsman, "theres not a moment to
lose; Schwartz is close. But hold," he
added, '1et's shoot him.


At that moment a tall, stout German
student came over the platform where
we stood, and we saw that the mailman
had his heavy pistol aimed at us. He
grasped huge stick of wood, and, with
a steadiness of nerve which [ could not
have commanded, he hurled it with such
force and precision that he knocked the
pistol from the maniac's hand. L saw
the movement, and on the instant that
the pistol fell I sprang forward, and the
German followed me. I grasped the
man by the arm; but I should have
been nothing in his mad power, had L
been alone He would have hurled me
from the platform had not the student
at that moment struck him upon the
head with q stick of wood which he
caught as he came over the tender.


Kroller settled down like dead man,
and on the next instant [ shut off the
steam and opened the valve. AS the
freed steam shrieked and howled in its
escaped, the speed began to decrease,
and in a few minutes more danger was
passed. As I settled back, entirely over
come by the wild emotions that had rag
ed within me, we began to turn the riv-
er; and before [ was fairly recovered,
the fireman had stopped the train in the
station-house at Schwartz.


Martin Krolier, still insensible, was
taken from the PLATFORM and, as we car
ried him to the guard-room, one of the
guards recognized him, and told us that
he had been there about two weeks be-
fore.


"He came" said the guard, ''and
swore that an engine which stood near
by was his. He said it was one he had
made to go to the moon in, and that it
had been stolen from him. We sent
for more help to arrest him, and he
fed"


oil r ioI eI, SgT
wish he had approached me in the same
way; but he was more cautious at Dant-
zic.''


At Schwartz we found an engineer to
run the engine to Bromberg; and having
taken out the Western mail for the next
Northern mail to carry along, we saw
that Kroller would be properly attended
to, and then started on.


The rest of the trip we ran in safety,
though [ could see the passengers were
not wholly at ease, and would not be
until they were entirely clear of the rail
way. A heavy purse was made up by
them, for the German student, and he
accepted it with much gratitude, and I
was glad of it; for the current of graf
itude to him may have prevented far
different current of feeling which might
have poured upon my head for having
engaged a mailman to run a railroad
train


But this is not the end. Martin Krol.
ler remained insensi BILE from the effects
OF the blow nearly two weeks; and when
he recovered from that, and was sound
again, his insanity was all gone. I saw
him about three weeks afterward, but
he had no recollection of me. He re-
membered nothing of the past year, not
even his mad freak on my engine


But remembered it, and remember
it still; and the people need never fear
that I shall be imposed upon again by
crazy engineer.