CHAPTERCXXXIII.TIED TO THE TRACK—A STATION MASTER’S STORY.“Our friend here,” said the station-master, “has given you a notion of what a life on the ocean wave is, now I’m just going on a different track altogether. Perhaps the most monotonous unromantic life it is possible to conceive is that of a railway servant, whether guard, engine-driver, porter, or station-master, and I dare say you are all astonished at my volunteering a tale about railway life.”“Not at all! No such thing! Go on,” cried several.“Well then, here goes,” cried the narrator.“Along about the years sixty-seven and eight it got to be altogether too common a thing on our line putting sleepers across the track and tearing up rails, to throw the train off, so as to rob the express car; and some of the villains who were caught got pretty severe sentences.“It so happened that in an especially noteworthy case it was my own evidence chiefly that convicted two of the most precious rascals you ever set eyes on, Tom Jackson and Clint Parker by name.“They were sent to Joliet for fifteen years, and I was mighty glad to serve as ‘humble instrument’ in the case, I tell you; though sometimes I did feel kind of squeamish-like when I repeat to myself the last words Parker said as they took him out of court:—“‘As for you, Joe Townsend’ (and he shook his fist significantly in my direction) ‘all this comes of the cowardly lies you’ve sworn to; and I want you to understand that Tom Jackson and me, we aint the men to stay down at Joliet for fifteen years breaking stone. We’re goin’ to git out, we are, and you may depend upon it we’ll be keerful to pay our first respec’s to you. We’ve invented a new kind of sleeper to throw trains off with—eh, Tom?’ and he leered horribly to his crony as they passed through the door.“Those last words of Parker’s I turned over in my mind a good many times during the next two years—somehow or other they stuck by me:—‘We’ve invented a new kind of sleeper to throw a train off the track.’“I kind of felt as though he meant something unusual by that, although I could not make out what. It seemed that I was to find out, though, before many months.“The house, where my wife and the babies lived was just about three-quarters of a mile below the station, and quite near the track. I generally got through at the depot at half-past eight, as soon as the accommodation went down.“The night express, which goes through at 9.55, doesn’t pull up at R—— at all, and the through freight, which meets it down the road a piece, at W——, of course I have nothing to do with. I might mention here that the road is double-track the entire length; but there is a long bridge at W——, so that the freight always waits there for the express.“At half-past eight, then, as I say, I was at liberty for the night, and it didn’t take me long to shut up the depot and start off down the road for home; and a lonely enough tramp it is, I tell you, even on a bright night, for the track runs all the way through woods and swamps, and it’s mighty dark and uncomfortable at best.“Well, the night I’m going to tell you about was black as the inside of a two-mile tunnel. When I started down the track I almost wished I’d gone around by the highway, for I had to feel my way half the time.“However, I knew the path tolerably well, and could tell where all the culverts and dangerous places were, pretty nearly.“So I held up my lantern like the head-light of a locomotive and stumbled along, making pretty good time on the whole.“I must have been just about half-way home, I guess, when all at once, without the slightest idea on my part that any human being was within half a mile of me, I felt a pair of arms clasped around my waist with a strength it was impossible to overcome; then, suddenly, I was thrown down, the light from a more powerful lantern than mine (which had fallen from my hand and become extinguished) flashed about me, and by its glare I saw three powerful fellows, who, in spite of my struggles, and I am no baby, proceeded to tie my hands firmly behind me.“I did not recognise them at all till, at length, as I lay there on my back, entirely helpless, one of them snatched the lantern from his companion and held it close down to me, while he brought his own face close to mine.“‘Wall, Joe Townsend,’ he said, ‘do you know me?’“‘Yes, I know you, Clint Parker,’ I answered, as coolly as I could.“‘I thought as how mebbe ye would. I didn’t mean to stay down there to Joliet so long thet my dearest friend would forgit me. I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout you, Joe, most all the time while I was down there gittin’ up my muscle-breakin’ stone. And here’s anuther feller you may remember—leastways, he aint forgot you, eh, Tom?’—and I now recognised Tom Jackson, the other prisoner of two years before. The third man I had never seen.“‘This place’ll do as well as any, I ’spose,’ Parker went on, presently. ‘What’s the time, Jem?’“Jem consulted his watch, and pronounced it to be about nine.“‘All right; he’ll have jest about fifty minutes to think things over in and repent having lied about two such exemplary gentlemen as Tom Jackson and myself—eh, Tom?’ and Tom chuckled, approvingly.“‘Now git out all them ropes,’ still Parker went on. He seemed to be the leading spirit and spokesman of the enterprise. ‘Do ye know what we’re goin’ to do with yer, Joe? We aint goin’ to throw no trains off the track. Oh, no! Tom and me, we wouldn’t do nothin’ of that kind—eh, Tom? But we’re goin’ to let you throw one off. I told ye, ye know, that Tom and me we’d diskivered a new kind of sleeper for throwin’ trains with. We’re jest goin’ to tie you down here across the track awhile, that’s all. We wouldn’t do nothin’ cruel—eh, Tom?’“So their hellish purpose was revealed at last. They were going to tie me to the track and let the train pass over me! I confess at that moment my limbs actually shook with fear. It was not only death within less than an hour that I was to suffer, but death in a most violent and horrible form.“Certainly a revenge worthy of two such monsters as stood there gloating over my misery. For a moment I thought only of myself. Then I groaned aloud as I remembered Jennie and the little ones.“I don’t know why I should be ashamed to tell it—I doubt if there are many men who would not have done the same in my place—but I just sank down on my knees then and there, and begged those heartless villains to forego their desperate purpose.“I might as well have gone on my knees to the great iron monster that would be along in so short a time to crush me.“They only laughed merrily over my despair, and began their work.“You’ll acknowledge yourselves, gentlemen, that it’s rather a dismal look for a poor fellow to be gagged and bound, hand and foot, and then be tied fast across a railroad track with his neck across one rail and his feet over the other, and to know that in something like half an hour’s time a fast express train is coming down that very track without paying any attention to him whatever—and this in a dark, drizzly night, and in a lonely spot where no human being is at all likely to find him.“And that’s the way those double-dyed scoundrels left me—they tied me there fast and firm—they mockingly bade me good-night and pleasant dreams—the leader, Parker, even stooped over me and kissed me with pretended tenderness, and I felt his hot, liquor-freighted breath on my cheek.“And yet I could not cry out in my agony nor curse them in my desperation as they moved off.“No words of mine, gentlemen, can describe the horror and agony I felt during the time I lay there.“You can not half imagine it—I doubt if I can recall it now as it really was myself. I go over it again and again in my sleep to this day—fancy myself once more bound down to that fearful rack, powerless to stir hand or foot, yet striving with almost superhuman force to burst the ropes that bind me—till I finally seem to succeed and awake shrieking from the horrid nightmare, with the sweat standing out in great drops upon my brow.“But I did not burst my bonds that night. The villains had taken good care of that. There I was in a most painful position, bound by the neck to one rail, and by the ankles to the other, my hands tied beneath me, and my body fastened to a sleeper.“Oh, God! how I did struggle to free myself; how I sought to wrench away my legs; how I tugged at the cord which bound my wrists; and then, since I could not get them free, as I thought of the fearful death so soon to come upon me, how I strove to throttle myself with the rope that held my head to the rail!“How I prayed that I might suffocate there as I lay! I have heard that men have died of terror, but I don’t believe it. If such a thing were possible I think I should have perished in those dreadful moments. But I did not. Oh, no! The murderers were to have their fullest revenge.“And now, suddenly I grew strangely calm. I philosophised with myself. I said resignedly, that a man could die but once; and after all, what would it matter an hour hence?“Besides, in reality, this was an instantaneous and almost painless end. But my wife and children! Oh, I would like to live for them. And could I not? I was not dead yet. If I could only move myself a few feet. Oh, so very few feet! Yet I could not stir.“Now, a thought struck me. Could I not signal the train in some way, stop it one little yard, or foot, or inch before it passed over me? Alas, how? They would never hear my cries.“They would never see me in the darkness of the night. No one would know until the morrow, and then I should be, alas! crushed, and mangled, and dead.“But my lantern—where was that? I turned my head, and could see it a few feet away where I had dropped it. If I only had it on my breast I could draw up my pocket with my teeth, I thought, and somehow get a match from it, and so light the lantern.“And in my insane terror I called out to it, and begged it to come nearer, and save my wretched life. You may smile at that, gentlemen, but human nature is weaker than you think, and I believe I am as good a man ordinarily as the most.“But all this time the minutes were flying by like lightning. Horrible as that hour was to me, I could have wished it was all eternity.“Every instant I dreaded to hear the train coming. I knew it must be well-nigh time for it now, and I knew that it was on time, for we had telegraphed it an hour before.“I will not dwell longer on my sufferings. I did not free myself. I could not if the salvation of the race had depended upon it. Nor did anybody come to free me. No one would ever pass that spot on a night like that, and at such an hour.“Nor was the train behind time. No, I heard it at last; it was no creation of my excited fancy this time. I heard it at last, first a faint, rumbling sound, that seemed to come from deep down in the earth, beneath me; then the ground seemed to thrill and tremble; then the rails rattled a little, then more and more; then I heard the whistle and bell, and then, oh, God! another instant and it would be upon me. I could even see the reflected glare of the headlight.“I tried once more to cry out; I struggled again for an instant, with all the power of my being, then I knew that my time was come, and I shut my eyes and lay quite still.“And the great train came rushing on and on—it was close upon me—I saw it not, yet I felt it to be directly above me. Great heavens! what was this? Was it passing over me and I still living, and feeling it not?“I opened my eyes; I saw the cars flashing by above and within a few feet of my head. Then the truth flashed upon me.The train was upon the other track!The reaction was too much for me, and I fainted dead away.“When I came to consciousness again, I found myself in my own room at home.“I had only a confused recollection of the events which had so lately befallen me, but they told me gently all that I did not know of the story.“I had been very ill, they said, of brain fever. They had found me on the morning of that terrible night, bound fast—not to the railroad track, but to a tree, just a few rods away from it.“I was very delirious, and was taken home raving continually.“I had been sick for a fortnight. Then they asked how it was that I came to be tied to the tree.“But, alas, I knew as little of that part of the story as they did.“I told them how I had been seized by Parker and his companions, and tied to the track.“My lantern, found near the spot, and distinct marks of a struggle, confirmed the story.“The question was, how did I escape the train, and how did I become tied to the tree?“My own theory is this: Parker and Jackson were not, after all, so bad as I took them to be. Their revenge had been, not to murder me, but to frighten me terribly; and they certainly had succeeded perfectly. I could see nothing, tied as I was, could hardly turn my head, and they had easily persuaded me into the idea that I was on the down track—that of the passenger-express.“After the train had passed, they had come to release me before the up freight should be along. They had fastened me to the tree so as to get fully away before I could give any alarm.“That is the only way I can account for the facts. And though I certainly don’t owe the rascals anything for what they did to me, I never think of the affair to this day without feeling a kind of gratitude towards them, and thanking God they were not as black-hearted as I thought they were, after all.”“Well, that’s a jolly good yarn,” said the captain; “it beats mine into an almighty smash, and no mistake.”“Oh, I don’t say that,” observed Whittock, “you are both good story-tellers. Talk about the ‘Arabian Nights’ Entertainment,’ I rather fancy we could knock up one ourselves if we had a mind.”“I’m sure we could,” returned Peace.“But the time is getting late, gentlemen,” said the captain. “The best of friends must part. Time is on the wing, and all that sort of thing.”“Time was made for slaves,” cried one of the party. “Don’t go yet.”“No—no; sit down, and make yourself as happy as possible,” said Peace, who on this occasion, as on many others of a similar nature, proved himself to be an excellent host and a most genial companion, so that the small hours of the morning had arrived before the party broke up.There was the usual amount of leave-taking, shaking of hands, and protestations of friendship.Peace saw his guests to the outer gate, and then, when all had taken their departure, he returned into the house with Bandy-legged Bill, who took up his quarters atNo.4 for the remainder of the night.
“Our friend here,” said the station-master, “has given you a notion of what a life on the ocean wave is, now I’m just going on a different track altogether. Perhaps the most monotonous unromantic life it is possible to conceive is that of a railway servant, whether guard, engine-driver, porter, or station-master, and I dare say you are all astonished at my volunteering a tale about railway life.”
“Not at all! No such thing! Go on,” cried several.
“Well then, here goes,” cried the narrator.
“Along about the years sixty-seven and eight it got to be altogether too common a thing on our line putting sleepers across the track and tearing up rails, to throw the train off, so as to rob the express car; and some of the villains who were caught got pretty severe sentences.
“It so happened that in an especially noteworthy case it was my own evidence chiefly that convicted two of the most precious rascals you ever set eyes on, Tom Jackson and Clint Parker by name.
“They were sent to Joliet for fifteen years, and I was mighty glad to serve as ‘humble instrument’ in the case, I tell you; though sometimes I did feel kind of squeamish-like when I repeat to myself the last words Parker said as they took him out of court:—
“‘As for you, Joe Townsend’ (and he shook his fist significantly in my direction) ‘all this comes of the cowardly lies you’ve sworn to; and I want you to understand that Tom Jackson and me, we aint the men to stay down at Joliet for fifteen years breaking stone. We’re goin’ to git out, we are, and you may depend upon it we’ll be keerful to pay our first respec’s to you. We’ve invented a new kind of sleeper to throw trains off with—eh, Tom?’ and he leered horribly to his crony as they passed through the door.
“Those last words of Parker’s I turned over in my mind a good many times during the next two years—somehow or other they stuck by me:—‘We’ve invented a new kind of sleeper to throw a train off the track.’
“I kind of felt as though he meant something unusual by that, although I could not make out what. It seemed that I was to find out, though, before many months.
“The house, where my wife and the babies lived was just about three-quarters of a mile below the station, and quite near the track. I generally got through at the depot at half-past eight, as soon as the accommodation went down.
“The night express, which goes through at 9.55, doesn’t pull up at R—— at all, and the through freight, which meets it down the road a piece, at W——, of course I have nothing to do with. I might mention here that the road is double-track the entire length; but there is a long bridge at W——, so that the freight always waits there for the express.
“At half-past eight, then, as I say, I was at liberty for the night, and it didn’t take me long to shut up the depot and start off down the road for home; and a lonely enough tramp it is, I tell you, even on a bright night, for the track runs all the way through woods and swamps, and it’s mighty dark and uncomfortable at best.
“Well, the night I’m going to tell you about was black as the inside of a two-mile tunnel. When I started down the track I almost wished I’d gone around by the highway, for I had to feel my way half the time.
“However, I knew the path tolerably well, and could tell where all the culverts and dangerous places were, pretty nearly.
“So I held up my lantern like the head-light of a locomotive and stumbled along, making pretty good time on the whole.
“I must have been just about half-way home, I guess, when all at once, without the slightest idea on my part that any human being was within half a mile of me, I felt a pair of arms clasped around my waist with a strength it was impossible to overcome; then, suddenly, I was thrown down, the light from a more powerful lantern than mine (which had fallen from my hand and become extinguished) flashed about me, and by its glare I saw three powerful fellows, who, in spite of my struggles, and I am no baby, proceeded to tie my hands firmly behind me.
“I did not recognise them at all till, at length, as I lay there on my back, entirely helpless, one of them snatched the lantern from his companion and held it close down to me, while he brought his own face close to mine.
“‘Wall, Joe Townsend,’ he said, ‘do you know me?’
“‘Yes, I know you, Clint Parker,’ I answered, as coolly as I could.
“‘I thought as how mebbe ye would. I didn’t mean to stay down there to Joliet so long thet my dearest friend would forgit me. I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout you, Joe, most all the time while I was down there gittin’ up my muscle-breakin’ stone. And here’s anuther feller you may remember—leastways, he aint forgot you, eh, Tom?’—and I now recognised Tom Jackson, the other prisoner of two years before. The third man I had never seen.
“‘This place’ll do as well as any, I ’spose,’ Parker went on, presently. ‘What’s the time, Jem?’
“Jem consulted his watch, and pronounced it to be about nine.
“‘All right; he’ll have jest about fifty minutes to think things over in and repent having lied about two such exemplary gentlemen as Tom Jackson and myself—eh, Tom?’ and Tom chuckled, approvingly.
“‘Now git out all them ropes,’ still Parker went on. He seemed to be the leading spirit and spokesman of the enterprise. ‘Do ye know what we’re goin’ to do with yer, Joe? We aint goin’ to throw no trains off the track. Oh, no! Tom and me, we wouldn’t do nothin’ of that kind—eh, Tom? But we’re goin’ to let you throw one off. I told ye, ye know, that Tom and me we’d diskivered a new kind of sleeper for throwin’ trains with. We’re jest goin’ to tie you down here across the track awhile, that’s all. We wouldn’t do nothin’ cruel—eh, Tom?’
“So their hellish purpose was revealed at last. They were going to tie me to the track and let the train pass over me! I confess at that moment my limbs actually shook with fear. It was not only death within less than an hour that I was to suffer, but death in a most violent and horrible form.
“Certainly a revenge worthy of two such monsters as stood there gloating over my misery. For a moment I thought only of myself. Then I groaned aloud as I remembered Jennie and the little ones.
“I don’t know why I should be ashamed to tell it—I doubt if there are many men who would not have done the same in my place—but I just sank down on my knees then and there, and begged those heartless villains to forego their desperate purpose.
“I might as well have gone on my knees to the great iron monster that would be along in so short a time to crush me.
“They only laughed merrily over my despair, and began their work.
“You’ll acknowledge yourselves, gentlemen, that it’s rather a dismal look for a poor fellow to be gagged and bound, hand and foot, and then be tied fast across a railroad track with his neck across one rail and his feet over the other, and to know that in something like half an hour’s time a fast express train is coming down that very track without paying any attention to him whatever—and this in a dark, drizzly night, and in a lonely spot where no human being is at all likely to find him.
“And that’s the way those double-dyed scoundrels left me—they tied me there fast and firm—they mockingly bade me good-night and pleasant dreams—the leader, Parker, even stooped over me and kissed me with pretended tenderness, and I felt his hot, liquor-freighted breath on my cheek.
“And yet I could not cry out in my agony nor curse them in my desperation as they moved off.
“No words of mine, gentlemen, can describe the horror and agony I felt during the time I lay there.
“You can not half imagine it—I doubt if I can recall it now as it really was myself. I go over it again and again in my sleep to this day—fancy myself once more bound down to that fearful rack, powerless to stir hand or foot, yet striving with almost superhuman force to burst the ropes that bind me—till I finally seem to succeed and awake shrieking from the horrid nightmare, with the sweat standing out in great drops upon my brow.
“But I did not burst my bonds that night. The villains had taken good care of that. There I was in a most painful position, bound by the neck to one rail, and by the ankles to the other, my hands tied beneath me, and my body fastened to a sleeper.
“Oh, God! how I did struggle to free myself; how I sought to wrench away my legs; how I tugged at the cord which bound my wrists; and then, since I could not get them free, as I thought of the fearful death so soon to come upon me, how I strove to throttle myself with the rope that held my head to the rail!
“How I prayed that I might suffocate there as I lay! I have heard that men have died of terror, but I don’t believe it. If such a thing were possible I think I should have perished in those dreadful moments. But I did not. Oh, no! The murderers were to have their fullest revenge.
“And now, suddenly I grew strangely calm. I philosophised with myself. I said resignedly, that a man could die but once; and after all, what would it matter an hour hence?
“Besides, in reality, this was an instantaneous and almost painless end. But my wife and children! Oh, I would like to live for them. And could I not? I was not dead yet. If I could only move myself a few feet. Oh, so very few feet! Yet I could not stir.
“Now, a thought struck me. Could I not signal the train in some way, stop it one little yard, or foot, or inch before it passed over me? Alas, how? They would never hear my cries.
“They would never see me in the darkness of the night. No one would know until the morrow, and then I should be, alas! crushed, and mangled, and dead.
“But my lantern—where was that? I turned my head, and could see it a few feet away where I had dropped it. If I only had it on my breast I could draw up my pocket with my teeth, I thought, and somehow get a match from it, and so light the lantern.
“And in my insane terror I called out to it, and begged it to come nearer, and save my wretched life. You may smile at that, gentlemen, but human nature is weaker than you think, and I believe I am as good a man ordinarily as the most.
“But all this time the minutes were flying by like lightning. Horrible as that hour was to me, I could have wished it was all eternity.
“Every instant I dreaded to hear the train coming. I knew it must be well-nigh time for it now, and I knew that it was on time, for we had telegraphed it an hour before.
“I will not dwell longer on my sufferings. I did not free myself. I could not if the salvation of the race had depended upon it. Nor did anybody come to free me. No one would ever pass that spot on a night like that, and at such an hour.
“Nor was the train behind time. No, I heard it at last; it was no creation of my excited fancy this time. I heard it at last, first a faint, rumbling sound, that seemed to come from deep down in the earth, beneath me; then the ground seemed to thrill and tremble; then the rails rattled a little, then more and more; then I heard the whistle and bell, and then, oh, God! another instant and it would be upon me. I could even see the reflected glare of the headlight.
“I tried once more to cry out; I struggled again for an instant, with all the power of my being, then I knew that my time was come, and I shut my eyes and lay quite still.
“And the great train came rushing on and on—it was close upon me—I saw it not, yet I felt it to be directly above me. Great heavens! what was this? Was it passing over me and I still living, and feeling it not?
“I opened my eyes; I saw the cars flashing by above and within a few feet of my head. Then the truth flashed upon me.The train was upon the other track!The reaction was too much for me, and I fainted dead away.
“When I came to consciousness again, I found myself in my own room at home.
“I had only a confused recollection of the events which had so lately befallen me, but they told me gently all that I did not know of the story.
“I had been very ill, they said, of brain fever. They had found me on the morning of that terrible night, bound fast—not to the railroad track, but to a tree, just a few rods away from it.
“I was very delirious, and was taken home raving continually.
“I had been sick for a fortnight. Then they asked how it was that I came to be tied to the tree.
“But, alas, I knew as little of that part of the story as they did.
“I told them how I had been seized by Parker and his companions, and tied to the track.
“My lantern, found near the spot, and distinct marks of a struggle, confirmed the story.
“The question was, how did I escape the train, and how did I become tied to the tree?
“My own theory is this: Parker and Jackson were not, after all, so bad as I took them to be. Their revenge had been, not to murder me, but to frighten me terribly; and they certainly had succeeded perfectly. I could see nothing, tied as I was, could hardly turn my head, and they had easily persuaded me into the idea that I was on the down track—that of the passenger-express.
“After the train had passed, they had come to release me before the up freight should be along. They had fastened me to the tree so as to get fully away before I could give any alarm.
“That is the only way I can account for the facts. And though I certainly don’t owe the rascals anything for what they did to me, I never think of the affair to this day without feeling a kind of gratitude towards them, and thanking God they were not as black-hearted as I thought they were, after all.”
“Well, that’s a jolly good yarn,” said the captain; “it beats mine into an almighty smash, and no mistake.”
“Oh, I don’t say that,” observed Whittock, “you are both good story-tellers. Talk about the ‘Arabian Nights’ Entertainment,’ I rather fancy we could knock up one ourselves if we had a mind.”
“I’m sure we could,” returned Peace.
“But the time is getting late, gentlemen,” said the captain. “The best of friends must part. Time is on the wing, and all that sort of thing.”
“Time was made for slaves,” cried one of the party. “Don’t go yet.”
“No—no; sit down, and make yourself as happy as possible,” said Peace, who on this occasion, as on many others of a similar nature, proved himself to be an excellent host and a most genial companion, so that the small hours of the morning had arrived before the party broke up.
There was the usual amount of leave-taking, shaking of hands, and protestations of friendship.
Peace saw his guests to the outer gate, and then, when all had taken their departure, he returned into the house with Bandy-legged Bill, who took up his quarters atNo.4 for the remainder of the night.