The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

BY RIGHT OF SWORD. — 509) most athletic fellow in the ranks, was my sworn champion, on the ground that I was the only man in the regiment who could outrun and outjump him, and beat him with any weapon he liked to pick. I believe the man loved me for my strength and skill. The time dragged a bit for the patient fellows on guard, who were not near enough to exchange a word without the sergeants being pretty sure to hear it; and the eyes of all soon began to be cast longingly northward in impatient desire to catch a glimpse of the trains. Almost the only men who showed no signs of feeling were the five to whom the coming of the train meant, as they knew and were content to know, the coming of death also. They stood like stone figures ; impassive, immovable, and stern ; the type of men to whom death in the cause of duty is welcome. An hour before the time, I took up my position finally, exactly in the line of the three alder trees, and resolved not to move again nor to have my attention drawn away from the rails until the work was over, and I only lifted my eyes now and then from the track to send a sharp, quick glance along the line to see if the train was yet in sight. The first intimation I had that the trains were approaching came from the opposite direction. Between us and the Vsatesk station, about half a mile distant, was a signal box ; and the light wind which was blowing from the south carried to my ears the sharp smack of the signal arm as it fell from the danger point, and announced the line as all clear. I knew then it wasa matter of minutes. .My pulse began to quicken slightly ; and my scrutiny of the track and rails increased in intentness. But the minutes dragged on, and the time announced came and passed. I knew of the Czar’s passion for punctuality, and after this delay had lasted some time I began to think some real accident must have caused it. In this weary suspense, a quarter of an hour, half an hour, three quarters passed, and my watched showed 3:30, and still not a sign of even the pilot engine was visible. Then a tiny black speck in the far straight distance topped by a small white steam cloud, told me the pilot engine was coming at last; and in the swift glances I spared from my scrutiny of the rails, I saw it grow larger and blacker as it covered the intervening space, until it thundered up, and crashed and lumbered by us, and began to fade in the opposite direction until it disappeared round the slight curve which was between us and Vsatesk station. What the interval would be between the pilot engine and the first train, and what that first train would be, I did not know. ‘The intervals, always differed ; sometimes five minutes; sometimes ten ; sometimes as much as twenty minutes were allowed to elapsed. But the interval was nothing com- pared with the question which train would follow. On that might turn the whole result of the affair. All the men had now straightened up, and even the five on my right showed signs of being interested. I saw them looking up with stealthy, longing, deadly fixedness for the coming of their prey. But on the line itself there was no sign of change. (S(@) GEomichbooks