The Argosy, Vol. XXV, No. 3 — page 126: what you’re looking at

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

510 THE ARGOSY. I had understood that at some point the rails would be shifted so as to throw the train off the line. But search as closely as I would, I could not detect the least sign of any preparation for this. The uncertainty which this circumstance caused added to my excitement and the suspense became doubly trying. It quickened up to a climax when I saw once again in the distance the growing speck that told me the second train was at hand. I kept my eyes glued to the rails, and my ears strained for some notifi- cation either by sight or sound that the trap had been laid. Without such a sign, I dared not do anything. Yet nothing happened: and the black speck in the distance developed into a distinct shape, and increased quickly in size, and a slight hum came vibrating along the rails. The hum grew into the sound of muffled drums; then swelled into a heavy, threatening rumble, and rapidly climaxed to a crashing, rattling, reverberating roar, as the clattering, clanging, jolting baggage train lurched heavily by, and roared away southward. It passed safely every point on the line; and the old question which would be next recurred with greater strain than before, and drummed itself in on my brain like a sharp throbbing shoot of pain. When for the third time the little warning speck in the distance told me that either the Czar or his suite must now be coming, my excitement waxed well nigh out of my control; my hand stole to the hilt of my sword and loosened it in the scabbard ; my fingers played on the stock of my revolver ; and my eyes never for an instant left the rails, but ran up and down them with swift, eager, searching glances, hungry for a sign. As the distance between me and the on coming train lessened, the tension increased, and my sense of baffled impotence, when I detected no sign any- where on the rails, was staggering. By a great effort only could I prevent myself from doing something to stop the approach of the train; and my eagerness was multiplied infinitely when, in a glance I could not keep from straying to the murderous gang on my right, Isaw them, one and all, making ready stealthily for their deadly work. : But no sign on the track gave me my cue for action, and I could only wait, full of my resolve to do all that had to be done should this be the train to be thrown off the line. It came thundering up and passed me without my being able to take a step of any sort. Like the other it traversed the whole section of the line in safety, though I saw, with an astonishment that for the moment bewildered ine, that the imperial saloon was the central carriage. Obviously the Czar had passed in safety. And I jumped instantly to the conclusion that for some reason the mechanism, which was to have derailed the train, had failed to act. .But an incident which occurred almost as soon as the train had passed, showed me the falseness of this conclusion. I was staring fixedly at the track, when at a point that was exactly oppo- site me, and thus in a direct line with the three alder trees, I saw the two rails swing aside from the roadbed just enough to overturn a train. There was scarcely a click of sound, and, after a moment, they swung back as silently into position. Eomichbooks (S@)