Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

‘any danger. ‘TRAIN AND STATION. 169 The next thing Dorothy knew, there was a crashing, rolling report that al- most deafened her, and she found her- self standing upright in the sitting room, with shaking limbs and startled eyes. It was the same terrific clap of thunder that had ushered in the masked robber at the station, and was the letting loose of the full fury of the long gathering storm. When she realized what had startled her, Dorothy regained most of her self possession, and felt considerably mor- tified that she had allowed herself to go to sleep, even for a few minutes. She glanced toward the clock on the mantel shelf. Jts hands pointed to one o'clock, and she had slept four hours! With a startled exclamation she sprang closer to the timepiece, as if doubting the evidence of her own eyes. One o'clock and her aunt not there! Where could she be? “Aunty! Aunty! Aunt Ellen!” she cried, as she started for the front door, but there was no response, and only the rolling thunder and shrieking air broke the silence. Dorothy pushed open the door, and closed it after her, to keep the rushing air from blowing out the lamp. Then she struggled to one of the posts that supported the veranda, and clinging to it, gazed out upon the wreck and de- vastation the storm was carrying with it. | The shallow stream that flowed around the foot of the hill had become a raging torrent. Huge limbs of trees were borne by the wind through the fiying sheets of rain, and tremendous crashes now and then were heard, as some giant of the forest was uprooted and felled to the ground. Mrs. Handiford’s cottage was par- tially protected from the wind by the hill on the side of which it stood, and there were no trees near enough to do it damage by being blown down. Be- yond the savage gusts which occasion- ally shook it, it did not appear to be in 4 Dorothy was about to return to the shelter of the cottage, when, amid the yelling of the wind, the swish of the falling flood, and the cannonade of thunder, she heard distinctly the shrill clang of an engine bell. It was a light engine, or pilot, which had been sent out from the end of the division, to feel the way over the nu- merous bridges and trestles, to insure the safety of the express train that fol- lowed. A moment later, and by the blazing flashes of light, she saw the engine creep out upon the South Bridge. Then there was a crash of rending tim- bers, the “ kerchung”’ of a heavy en- gine’s plunge into the angry flood, and the wild hissing of the water upon the hot boiler. No human cry arose above these noises and that of the shrieking tem- pest, but it did not need these to tell Dorothy that there were brave men on that engine, and that if they escaped instant death 1n that terrible plunge they might need assistance. Without waiting to think how her frail strength could be of any avail amid the warring elements, she flew out into the storm, down the hill, and to the spot nearest to where the engine had gone into the water. She saw two men dead, and another apparently uninjured, but so stranded among the driftwood and débris of the fallen bridge as to be out of her reach. But she caught up the long slender limb of a tree, which had few branches, and extended it, when there came a fa- voring flash of light, out towards the struggling man. He grasped it, and with her assistance, was pulled ashore. But the poor fellow sank to the ground, either overcome with his exer- tions, or suffering from some serious injury. As soon as Dorothy could gather courage, she approached him, and discovered when she knelt at his side, that he was a negro. He looked up at her, rolling his eyes in a startling manner. ; comiclooolKs eo