The Dugdale Millions — page 76: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

66 THE DUGDALE MILLIONS. Having extracted sufficient entertainment from the condition of the hapless young man, Wallis proposed a walk over the tunnel before dinner, to which Dick eagerly consented, since he so much desired a talk with her alone. The walk over the tunnel was one of the treats offered visitors to Springhill, the old name of the Stanton place. Mr. Stanton’s land stretched out to the river, to which it descended abruptly by a precipitous range of rock. Through this rock a long tunnel had been bored for the way of the Hudson River Railroad. At the extreme end of the bluff overlooking the river, a summer-house had been built, from which a long view of the river, with its floating craft, could be had. From this point, a rough wooden stairway descended to the water’s edge, where there was a small boat- house, the shelter of a light rowboat in which Wallis and Bessie had spent many happy hours, but now rot- ting from neglect and disuse. From the south the railroad tracks entered the tunnel, through a rough rock cutting, the sides of which gradually ran down from the face of the tunnel to the level of the tracks. From the top of the tunnel opening to the top of the rock was a distance of twenty or twenty-five feet, almost perpendicular. It had not always borne this appearance, but, as the accident records of the com- pany could show, many years previous, a large amount of rock had been detached and _ had fallen upon the track below, leaving its face bare and ragged. As the years had passed, small evergreen trees and bushes had grown upon the ledges made by the broken rocks. Immediately over the center, at the extreme top, a large piece projected, and this had been guarded by a rail set up by Mr. Stanton, so that one could walk out in safety upon it and leaning over, watch the trains plunge into the tun- nel, or see them dash out with their thundering noise. Comicloeo® S C@© =