The Express Train

Two or tliree of us had lounged out of ie club one night, into Santley's office, ;o find out the news coming in by cable, whieh the sleeping town would not hear ntil the paper would be out to-morrow. antley was eáitor of the Courier. He was scribbling away at driving speed, lis hat on, au unlighted cigar iu his mouth. " You're at it late, Ben." "Accident on a Western road. Sixty ives lost," without looking up. We seized the long, white slips which ay coiled over the table, and read the ispateh. "Tut, tut!" "Infamous !" " Nobody to blame, of course." "I teil y cu the officers of a road where such nn accident is pcssible hould be tried for murder f" lied Ferers. Snntley shoved his copy to the boy, and lighted his cigar. " I think yon're wrong, Ferrers. Iustead of being startled nt suuh casualties, I nc-ver travel on a railway tliat I ani net nmazed at the soeurLyof them. Just think of' it. Thousands of trains running yearly on eauh, with but a minute to spare betweeasafety aad destruction, the safety of these trains depending on conductora, telegraph clerks, brakesmen, men of every grade of intellect, their bi"iins subject to every kind of moods and disease and tempera. The engineor tnke3 a glass of liquor; tiie conductor seta his watch half a minute too fast; the flagman f'alls asleep, and the train is dashed into ruin ! It is not the accident that is to be wondered at; it is the escape that is miraculous !" We all had dropped into seats by tuis time. The night was young, and one after another told some story of adventure or danger. Presently áantley said, ' ' There was an incident which occurred on the Erie road a few years ago, which made me feel as I do in the matter. I happened to be an eye-witness to the wliole affair." "What wasit, Ben?" " It's rather a long story - " " No matter. Go on. You can't go home until your prooi comes in, auyhow." ' ' No. Well, to mako you imderstand, about five years ngo I liad a bad breakdown - night-work, hack-writing and Door pay. You know how fast it all wears out the machine. The doctor ;alked of disease of the gray matter of ;he brain, etc., and prescribed, instead of medicine, absolute rest and ehange of scène. I would have swallowed all Jie nostrums in a shop rather than iiave left the office for a week. " ' I'll take country board and send in my editorials,' I said. " ' No ; you must drop office and work utterly out of your life lor a month, at least. Talk and think of planting potatoes, or embroidery - anything but newspapers and politics.' "Well, I obeyed. I started on a pedestrian tour through Pennsylv;tnia, studied oil stock in Alleghany county, and ato sauer-kraut in Berks. Finallj I brought up - footsore and bored beyond hearing - in Williamsport. While thcre, I feil into the habit of lounging about the railway station, studying the construction of the engines and making friends with the men. The man with whom I always fraternizo most readily is the skilied mechanic. He has a degree of common-sense - a store of certain facts which your youcg doctor or politician is apt to lack. Besides he is absolutely sure of his social standing ground, and has a grave self-respeet which teaches him to respect you. The professional lad just started on his career is uneasy, not sure of his position; he tries to climb perpetually. I teil you this to explain my intimacy with ninny of the officials on the road, espeoially with an engineer named Blakeley. " This man attracted me first by his ability to give me the iuformation I wanted in a few direct, sharp words. Like vaoai reticent men, he knew the weight and value of words. I soon beoame personally much interested in him. He was about 4.0, his hair streaked with gray, with a grave, wom face, which hinted at a youth of hardships and much suiïering. " However, Blakeley had found his way to the uplnnda at last. Three years before he had married n bright, cheerful woman. Tliey had one hild - a boy. Ho had work and good wages, and was, I found, high in the confldenca of the company. On one occaeion, ha ving a Sunday off, he took me up to Jersey Shore, where his wife and boy lived. He was an exceptionally silent mail, but, when with them, was garrulous and light-hearted as a boy. ín bis oyes Jane -was the wisest and fairest of women, and the boy a wonder of intellect. One great source of trouble to hirn was, as I f ound, tbat he was able to see them but once in three weeks. It was necessary for the child's health to keep thom in the country air, and, indeed, he could not afford to have them elsewhere; but this separated him from thetn almost wholly. Jane was in the liabit of coming with Charley down to a certain point of the road overy day, that Blakeley might see them as he dashed by. " And, when I foundjont this habit, it occurred to me that I could give Blakeley a great pleasure. How often have I cursed my meddling kindness since. January 25 was the child's birthday. I proposèd to Mrs. Blakeley that she and Oharley shouldjboard the train which her husband drove, unknown to him, and run up to Harrisburg, where he hadthenight oif. There was to be a little supper at tlie Lochiel House. Charley was to appear in a new suit, etc. , etc. Of course the whole affair was at my expense - a mere trifle, but an affair of grandeur and distinction wbich fairly took Jane's breath. She was a most innocent, happy creature ; one of those women who are wives and mothers in the eradle. When Blakeley f ound her she was a thin, pale little tailorc ss - a machine to grind out badly-made, shoddy clothes. But three years of marriage and petting of Charley had made lier rosy and plump and pretty. "The little Highland suit was bought complete, to the tiny dirk and feather, and very pretty the little fellow looked in it. ï wrote down to order a stunning supper, to be ready at 8. Jane and the boy were to go aboard the traiu at Jersey Shore, a qneer little hill village near which they lived. Blakeley ran the train from Williamsport down to Harrisburg that day. His wife being in the passenger car before he took charge of the engine, of course he would see and know notbing of her until we landed at Harrisburg at 7. I had intended to go down in the smoking car as usual, but another fancy, suggested I suppose by the originator of all evil, seized me. No need to lattgh. Satan, I believe, has quite as much to do with accidents and misery and death as with sin. Why not? However, my fancy, diabolic or not, was to go down on the engine with Blakeley. I hunted up the fireman, and talked to him for an hour. Then I went to the engineer. " ' Blakeley,' I said, 'Jones (thc firemaü) wants to-night off.' ' ' ' Off ! O, no doubt ! He's taking to drink, Jones. He must have been drinking when he talked of that. It's impossible. ' "I explained to Blakeley that Jones had a sick wife, or a sweethearter something, and finally owned that I had an uncouquerable desire to run down the road on the engine, and that, knowing my only chance was to take the fireman's place, I hal bribed him to give it to me. The f act was, that in my idleness and the overworked state of my brain I craved excitement as a confirmed drunkard does liquor. "Blakeley, I saw, was angry, and exceedingly annojed. He refused at firpt, bnt finally gave way with a grave civility, whioh almost made me ashamed of my boyish whim. I promised to be the prince of iii-emeu. " 'Then you'll have to be treated as one, Mr. Santley, said Blakeley, curt!y. ' I can't talk to gentlemen aboard my engine. It's different from here, on the platform, you'll remember. I've got to order and you to obey, in there, and that's all there's of it.' " ' O, I understand,' I said, thinking that it required little moral efíort to obey, in the matter of shoveling coal If I could haveguessed what that shoveling coal was to cost mo 1 But all day I went about thinking of the ñery ride through the hills, mounted literally on the iron horse. "Itwas in the middle of the afternoon when the train rushed info the station. I caught a glimpse of Jane on the passenger car, with Charley, magnificent in his red-and-green plaid, beside her. She nodded dozen times and laughed, and then hid behind the window, fearing her husband sliould see her. Poor girl ! It was the second great holiday of her life, she had told me, the first'being her wedding-day. " The train stopped ten minutes. It was neither an express nor an accommodation train, but one which stopped at the principal stations on the route - Selinsgrove, Sunbury, etc. "Ihad an old patched suit, fit, as I supposed, for the service oi coai neaver; but Blakeley, when I carne up, eyed it -nd ra y hands sardonically. He was in no better temper, evidently, with amateur firemen than he had been in the morning. "'All aboard !" he said, grufliy. ' You take your seat there, Mr. Santley. You'll put in coal just as I cali for it, ii you please, aad not trust to your owe judgment.' " His tone annoyed me. ' It cannot require much judgment to keep up a tire under a boiling pot, and not to make il too hot. Any woman can do tliat in hei own kitchen.' "He made no reply, but took his place in the little square box where the greater part of his life -was passed. I uoticed that his face was flushed, anc his irritation at my foolish whim was surelymore than the occasion required. I watched hiin with keen curiosity, wondering if it w as possible that he could have been drinking, as he had accused Jones of doing." "It strikes me as odd," interrupted Ferrers, " that you should have not only made an intímate companion of this fellow, Santley, but have taken so keen an interest in his tempers and drinkingbout3. You would not be b'kely to honor any of us with such attention. " "No. I have something else to do. I was absolutely idle then. Blakeley and his family for the time made up my world. As for the friendship, this was an exceptional man, both as to integrity and maesive hard sense. The knowledge that comes from books counts with me but for little, compared with the education given by experience and contact with facts for ï'orty years. 1 was honored by the friendship of this grimy engineer. But the question of his sobriety that day was a serions one. A man in charge of a train with hundreds of souls aboard I feit ought to be sober, particularly when I was shut up in the engine with him. "Just as we started a slip of paper was handed to him, which he read and threw down. " 'Do you run this train by telegraph?' I askeü, beginning to shovel vigorously. " ' Yes. No more coal.' "'Jsn't that unuBual?' " 'Yes. Thero are two special trains on the road this afternoon.' I " 'Is it difflcult to nm a train by telegraph?' I said presently, simply to make oonversation. Staring in silenoe i at the narrow slit in the gloomy furnace, or out at the village street, f through which we slowly passed, was i monotonous. "' No, not difflcult. I simply have to obey the instructions which I receive ] at each station.' " ' But if yon should happen to thmk i the instructions not right?' J ' ' ' Happen to think ! IVe no business to think at all ! When the trains run by 1 telegraph the engineers are so many machines in the hands of one controller, i who directs thern all from a central : point. He has the whole road under his eye. If they don't obey to the least tittle their orders, it is destruction to the whole.' " 'You seem to think silent obedience the flrst and last merit in a railway man?' " 'Yes,' dryly. "I took the hint and was dumb. " We were out of town now. Blakeley quickened the speed of the engine. I did not speak to liiin agían. There was little for me to do, and I was occupied in lcoking out at the Üying landscape. The fields were covered witli a deep fall of snow, and glanced whitely by, with a strange, unreal shimmer. The air was keen and cutting. Still the ride was tame. I was disappointed. The excitement would by no means equal a daeh on a spirited horse. I began to think I had little to pay for my grimy hands and face, when we slowed at the next station. Oue or two passengers came aboard the train. There was the inevitable oíd lady with btindles, alighting, and the usual squabble about the trunk. I was craning my neck to hear, when the boy ran alongside with the telegram. "The next moment I heard a smothered exclamation from Blakeley. " 'Go back,' said he to the boy. ' Teil Sands to have the message repeated. There's a mistake.' "The boy dashed off, and Blakeley sat waiting, coollypolishiug a bit of the shining brass before him. Back came the boy. " ' Had it repeated. Sands is raging at you. Says tiiere's no mistake, and you'd best get on,' thrnsting the second message up. " Blakeley read it, and stood hesitating for half a minute. I oever shall forget the disniay, the utter perplexity that gathered in his lean face as he looked at the telegram, and then at the long train behind him. His lips moved as if he were calculating chances, nnd his oye suddenly quailed, as if he saw death at the end of the calculation. ' ' ' What's the m atter ? What are you going to do V I asked. "'Obey.' ' ' The engine gave e long shriek of horror, that made me start as if it were Blakeley's own voice. The next instant we rushed out of thestation, and dashed through the low-lying farms at a speed which seemed dangerous to me. " ' Put in more coal,' said Blakeley. "I shoveled it in. " ' We are going very f ast, Blakeley,' I ventured. "He did not answer. His eye was fixed on the steom gauge ; his lipsclosely simt. " 'More coal!' "I threwit iu. " The fields and houses began to fly past but half seen. We were nearing Sunbury. Blakeley's eye went from the gauge to the face .f the timepiece and back. He moved like an antomaton. There was little more meaning in his face. " ' More !' without turning his eye. "I took up the shovel - hesitated. " 'Blakeley ! We're going very f ast. We're going at the rate of eixty miles an hour. ' " 'Ooal!' "I was alarmed at the stern, cold rigidit-y of the man. His pallor was becoming frightful. ' ' I threw in the coal. "At least we must stop in Sunbury. He had told me that was the next halt. " The little town approached. As the first house came into vkw the engine sent out its shriek of warning ; it grew louder, louder. Wc dashed into the street, up to the station, where a group of papsengers waited, and past it without the haft of an instant. I caught a glimpse of the appalled faces of the waiting crowd; then we were in the fields again. "The speed now became literally breathless ; the f urnace glared red-hot ; the heat, the velocity, the terrible nervous strain of the man beside me, seemed to weight the air. I f ound niyself drawing long, stertorious breaths, like one drowning. I heaped in the coal at intervals, as he bade me. " Td have done nothingof the kind !' interrupted one of tho listeners. ' The man was mad.' "I did it becauae I -was oppressed by an odd sense of duty, which I never had in my ordinary brain-work. I liad taken this meohanical task on nayself, and I feit a stricture upon me to go through with it at any cost. I know now how it is that dull, igcorant men, without a spark of enthusiaam, show stick heroisni sometimes, as soldiers, engineers, Captains of wrecked vessels. Itia this overpowerhr-; sense of routine duty. It is a finer thing than sheer bravery, to my notion. However, I began to be of yonr miud, Wright, that Blukelcy was mad, laboring under some sudden frenzy from drink, though I had never seen him touch liquor. " He did not move hand orfoot, eicept in the mechanioal control of the engine, his ?ye going from the gauge to the timepiece with a steadiness that was more terrible and threatening than any gloiim of insanity would have been. Once he glanced back at the long train sweeping aftel the engine, with a headlong- speed that rocked it from side to side. You would catch glimpses of htindreds of men and women talking, reading, smoking, unconsoious that their lives were all in the hold of one man, whom I now strongly suspected to be mad. I knew by his look tlwt he remembered their lives were in his hand. He glanced at tho clock. "'Twenty miles,' he mnttered. ' Throw on the coal, Jones. The tire is going out. ' "I lid it. Yes, I did it. There wns sometiiing in the iace of that mau tliat I oould not resist. Then I olimbed forward and shook him by tho shoulder. " ' Blakeley !' I shouted, 'you are rnnning this train into the jaws oi death.' " ' I know it,' quietly. " ' Your wife and child are onit.' "'MyGod!' ' ' He staggered to his f eet. But even then he did not move bis eyes from the gauge. "'In a minute - ' "'Make up the fire,' he said, and pushed in the throttle valve. "'I willnot.' "'Make up the fire, Mr. Santley, pery quietly. " ' I will not. You may murderyourself and your wif e and boy, but yon shall Dot rnurder me. ' r " He looked at me. Eis kindly gray eyes glared like those of a wild beast. But he controlled himself in a moment. " ' I oould throw you out of this door, and make short work of it. But - look here; do you ace the station yonder?' "I saw a thin wisjj of smoke against the sky, about flve miles in advance. " ' I was told to reaoh that station by 6 o'clock. The expresa train meeting us is due now. I ought to have laid by for it at Sunbury. I was told to come on. The track is a single one. Unless I can make the siding at that station in three minutes, we will meet it yonder in the hollow.' " 'Somebody blundered?' "'Yes, I thick so.' " 'And you obeyed ?' " He said nothing. I threw on coal. If I had had petroleum, I would have thrown it on. But I never was calmer in my lite. When death has a man actuaily by the throat it sobers him. " Blakeley pushed in the valve still farther. The engine began to give a strange, panting sound. Far off to the south I could see the bituminous, black smoke of a train. " Ilookedat Blakeley inquiringly. He nodded. It was the express. "I stooped to the fire. "'No more,' hesaid. " I looked across the clear, wintry sky at the gray smoke of the peaceful little village, and beyond, that black Une coming closer, closer, across the sky. Then I turned to the watch. ' ' In one minute more - "Gentlemen, I confess; I sat down and buried my face in my hands, I don't think I tried to pray. I had a confused thought of a mass of mangled dying men and women, mothersand their babies, and, vaguely, of a mercif ul God. Little Oharley, with his curls and pretty suit - " There was a terrific shriek f rom the engine, against which I leaned. Another in my face. A hot tempest swept past me. "I looked up. We were on the siding, and the express had gone by. Tbo hindmost cars touched in passing. " ' Thank God ! You've done it, Blakeley ! Blakeley !' I cried. " But he did not speak. He sat there immovable, and cold as a stone. I went to the cars and brought Jane and the boy to him, and when he opened his eyes and took the little woman's hands in his I carne away. "An engineer named Fred. who was at the station, ran the train into Harrisburg. Blakeley was terribly shaken. But we went clown and had our little feast, afier all. Oharley, at least, enjoyed it." " What was the explanation ? A blunder of the director, or the telegraph operator ?" " I don't know. Blakeley made light of it nfterwards, and kept the secret. These lailway men must have a strong esprit de corps. " All I know is, that Blakeley's salary was raised soon after, and he received that Christmas a very handsome ' testimonial for services rendered,' from the com pany."