It was no easy thing to do to hold that struggling front wheel steady.
He straightened up, and bending his right knee, placed the sole of his foot against the tire of the front wheel. He could feel it warming through the leather, but he had partly checked the speed. Then there was a ringing sound, a twist of both his arms, and over he went with a sickening momentary cry of fear.
He rolled up on his hands and knees. To save his life he could not help that choking, whimpering sound. His mouth was full of sand, and he felt as though his breast had been crushed in against his lungs. A sharp pain ran through his left leg; but at last he caught his breath.
There was the track within thirty feet of where he had fallen. He could only tell this by seeing the ghostlike danger-post that stretched above the roadway like a white warning gallows. There, a few rods down the track, was the switch that turned through the sharp cut to the quarries.
Rollins gave a cry. "The key!" The switch was locked. Would he have to stand there and see the ore-cars rush by him? He twisted with both hands at the guard chain to the lock. It wouldn"t move. But what was that standing close on the siding?
A hand-car is a good lift for two men at any time, but it seemed as if made of pine wood instead of heavy iron wheels and bars. He rolled it to the track, and up-ended it as easily as a laborer would throw over a wheel-barrow.
Then he heard a roaring sound above him along the grade. The sharp staccato tooting of the drilling engine he heard also. Then far below him, four miles away, the long confident whistle of No. 44 at a grade crossing. The rails were slippery, and he knew that the train was coming slowly up the grade. As the hand-car toppled across the track he threw upon the heap two heavy ties, and scrambled up the opposite bank. Now the roaring was upon him! Crash! A snap and a whirl, and the wheels of the foremost ore-car caught the obstruction. The load piled forward, and the flats behind reared up and threw their heavy freight in all directions. He had wrecked her just in time.
He hurried back to the crossing. A tangle of wire and frame-work, the bicycle lay at the road-side. He must have missed striking that huge rock by nothing short of a miracle. The lamp, twisted and broken, was attached to the front fork. He could smell the oil, and he sopped it with his handkerchief. His hands were sticky, and the match refused to light. At last he struck a handful of them; they flashed feebly, then sputtered and went out. In the brief s.p.a.ce Rollins had seen that his hands were dripping red.
A great white eye and the tinkling of the rails told that the little switch engine would strike the obstruction first.
It was alongside now! The young man saw that the wheels were reversing furiously. Then he heard a second crash and a screeching, long continued, that went through and through his dizzy brain.
"Safe! safe!" he said, and fell limp in the sand.
"Are you hurted, Bill, lad?" said the engineer of the switch engine, rubbing his bruised sides and letting up for a minute his pull on the whistle rope. "Them ore-cars jumped the track."
"No; all O K," came the answer from the opposite side of the cab. "Jest b.u.mped a bit. Listen! There"s old Jack whistling for brakes."
The shrieking of the switch engine was warning No. 44 in time. They could make-out her head-light through the leaves of the trees just at the tangent of the curve a quarter of a mile below. Some figures were running up the track, for they could see a lantern bobbing up and down, and soon the voices were quite close.
"What has happened here?" inquired a man with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, as he caught a glimpse of the engineer swinging himself painfully off the step to the ground behind the wreckage.
"The Lord"s finger, I reckon," said the engineer. "I swear I saw a light!" and in a few words he told the story.
A group of pa.s.sengers had surrounded the heap of boards, ore, iron wheels, and axles. The head-light of the switch engine had gone out in the jar, and there was not a face shown in the dim rays from the lantern that did not pale.
A drummer in a silk travelling-cap struck a match to light a paper cigarette, but his hand trembled so that he gave up, and sat down on the ties, and mechanically brushed off his shoes with his pocket-handkerchief as if it were dusty and broad daylight.
Another whistle sounded up the grade.
"There"s no train due," said the curly-headed young brakeman who had come up with another lantern on his arm. A large crowd of the pa.s.sengers of No. 44 accompanied him.
"I presume likely that"s the wrecking-train," said the engineer, "come down to pick you fellows up."
"Get up the track and flag her, Billy! Jump quick!" ordered the conductor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I SAY, YOU PEOPLE, THERE"S A DEAD MAN OR SOMETHING HERE IN THE ROAD."]
The brakeman started on a run. As he pa.s.sed the grade crossing he shouted back,
"I say, you people, there"s a dead man or something here in the road,"
and, without a pause, he hurried on.
Rollins opened his eyes and felt the familiar motion of a moving train, but for an instant he could not call back his wits to think. He was lying on a mattress on the floor and his head and shoulders were propped up comfortably. There was a crowd standing about him.
"You"re all right, my lad," said a voice. "There are four of us here to look out for you." The doctor arose from his knees and laughed.
Rollins faintly smiled. "Oh, I"m kind of comfortable," he said.
"The company ought to give him a gold bicycle set with diamonds," said the conductor.
"I"d rather have a trip to Europe," said Rollins.
A quiet-looking man standing in a corner of the car heard this remark and made a note of it.
The whistle hallooed exultantly at the entrance of the Jimtown yards.
The sound reached the ears of Mr. Mingle as he sat with his forehead resting on the edge of his desk. The three sharp toots that were being given so often in succession could be nothing else than cheers.
"Headquarters there! O. K. My side partner saved the train. Hurrah!
Forty-four is safe!"
He twitched the dots and dashes out with his nervous fingers. Then he drew his sleeve across his eyes and dashed down the steps to meet the train.
"Rollie"s a piece of work," he said to himself.
OAKLEIGH.
BY ELLEN DOUGLAS DELAND.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Edith recovered slowly; but the shock had told upon her, and it was thought she needed a change of air.
"Take her to a city," suggested the doctor. "She requires diversion."
And very hurriedly and unexpectedly they decided to go to Washington for a week or two, stopping in Philadelphia on their way back for a glimpse of Neal.
The party consisted of Mrs. Franklin, Edith, and Cynthia, with the addition at the last moment of Aunt Betsey. Each of the three Franklins felt a slight pang of disappointment when they heard that Miss Trinkett intended to join them; it would have been just a little nicer to go alone. But the old lady never suspected this, and she met them in Boston on the morning of the 1st of June, full of excitement and pleasure at the thought of seeing "the inner workings of this wonderful government of ours."
Hester"s one thought was that she should soon see her brother again.
During the last few weeks a letter had come from the head master at St.
Asaph"s, deeply regretting the unjust judgment that had been pa.s.sed upon Neal in suspending him from school. It had since been proved that he was innocent, and the faculty would be only too glad to welcome him back.