LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 847, 12 March 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE.

AT, EAYENHOLME JUNCTION.

( Concluded.')

‘ You will understand from this that the junction where we arc now is rather an out-of-the-way spot—out of the way, that is, of any great bustle of railway traffic. It forms, in fact, the point of connection between the llavouholme Loop and a single lino of rails which turns off to the left about a hundred yards from here, gnd gives access to a cluster of important coileries belonging to Lord Exbroeke; and the duty of Crump is, by means of his signals, to guard against the possibility of a collision between the coal trains coming off the colliery line and the ordinary trains passing up and down the loop. You will readily comprehend thot> at "a quiet place like this, a signalman has not half the work to do, por half the responsibility to labor under, of a man in a similar position at some busy junction on the main line. In fact, a signalman at Eavenholme may emphatically be said to have an easy tirqq of it. I nodded. ‘ Some two ago, however, it so fell out that an hutment of one of the bridges o,n Vpe ;isain hue was so undermined by heavy floods that instructions had to be given for no more trains to pass over it till it had been thoroughly repaired. In order to prevent any interruption of traffic, it was decided that till the necessary repairs could be effected all main fine trains should work, for the time being, over the Ravenholme Loop, As it was arranged so it was carried out.’ 4 Well f

‘ The signalman at that time in charge of this box was named Dazeley—a shy, nervous sort of man, as I have been told, lacking in self-confidence, and not to he depended upon in any unforeseen emergency. Such as ho was, however, he had been at Hayenholiae for three years, and had always performed the duties of his situation faithfully and well. As soon 5W the main line trains began to travel by the now route, another man was sent from head quarters to assist Dazeley — there had been no night work previously. The men came on duty turn and turn about, twelve hours on and twelve hours off, the man who was on by day one week being on by night the following week,’ ‘Go on.’

* It is said that Daaeley soon began to look worn and depressed, and that he became more nervous and wanting in self confidence than ever. Be that as it may, he never spoke a complaining word to anyone, but went on doing his duty in the silent depressed way habitual to him. One morning when he was coming off duty—it ws,3 bis, turn for night work that week —his mate was taken suddenly ill and was obliged to go home again. There was no help for it: Dazeley was obliged w take the sick man’s place for the day. When evening came routed, bis mate sent word that he was somewhat better, hut not well enough to resume work before morning; so Dazeley bad to take bis third consecutive “ spell ” of twelve hours in the box. kou sec, Eaveuholme is a long way from head quarters, and in any case it would have taken some thtfA to get assistance ; besides which, Dazeley expected that a few hours at the very most would see his mate thoroughly recovered. So nothing was said op done.’ I was growing interested. ‘ The night mail, f"oni south to. north was I timed to pass Raveuholme Junction, without stepping, at It. 40. On the particular night to wlj,ich we now come—the night of the accident—it is supposed that poor Dazeley, utterly worn cut for want of rest, had lain down for a minute or two on this very bunk, and had there dropped off to sleep, his signals, as was usual at that hour, standing at “ all clear.” Had he remained asleep till after the mail had passed all would have been well, everything being clear for its safe transit past the junction ; but unfortunately the night was somewhat foggy, and the engine-driver, not being able to seo the lamps, at the usual distance, blew his whistle loudly. Roused by the shrill sum-

raons, Dazeley, it is supposed, started suddenly to his feet, and his brain being still muddled with sleep, he grasped one of the familiar levers, and all unconscious of what he was doing, he turned the mail train on to the sm le line that led to the collieries.’ ‘Oh 1 ’

‘ The consequences were terrible Some two or three hundred yards down the colliery line a long coal train was waiting for the mail to pass before proceeding on its journey. Into this train the mail dashed at headlong speed. Two people were killed on the spot, and twenty or thirty more or less hurt. ’ ‘ How dreadful I ’

‘ When they came to look for Dazeley he was not to be found. Horror stricken at the terrible consequences of his act, he had iled, A warrant for his arrest was obtained. He was found four days afterwards in a wood, hanging to the bough of a tree, dead. One of his hands clasped a scrap of paper on which a few half-intellegible words had been scrawled, the purport of which was that after what had happened he could no longer bear to live.’

‘A sad story, truly,’ I said, as Harry finished. ‘lt seems to me that the poor fellow was to be pitied more than blamed.’

‘ Crump’s twenty minutes are rather long ones,’ said Harry, as he looked at his watch. ‘ It is now thirty-eight minutes past eleven. No chance of getting home till long after midnight.’ The rain was over and the wind had gone with it Not a sound was audible save now and again the faint moaning of the telegraph wires overhead. Harry crossed to the window and opened one of the three casements. ‘ A breath of fresh air will be welcome,’he said. ‘The gas makes this little place unbearable.’ Having opened the window he came back again and sat down beside me on the bunk.

Hardly had Harry resumed his seat, when all at once the gas sank down as though it were going out, but next moment it was burning as brightly as before. An icy shiver ran through me from head to foot. I turned my head to glance at Harry, and as I did so I saw, to my horror, that we were no longer alone. There had been but two of us only a moment before: the door had not been opened, yet now we were three. Sitting on a low wooden chair close to the levers, and with his head resting on them, was a stranger, to all appearance fast asleep ! I never before experienced the feeling of awful dread that crept over me at that moment, and I hope never to do so again. I knew instinctively that the figure before me was no corporeal being, no creature of flesh and blood like ourselves. My heart seemed to contract, my blood to congeal: my hands and feet turned cold as ice : the roots of my hair were stirred with a creeping horror that I had no power to control. I could not move my eyes from that sleeping figure. It was Dazeley come back again: a worn, haggard-looking man, restless, and full of nervous twitchings even in his sleep.

c ‘ Listen !’ said Harry, almost inaudibly, to me. 1 wanted to look at him, I wanted to see whether he was affected in the same way that I was, hut for the life of me I could not turn my eyes away from that sleeping phantom. Listening as ho hade me, I could just distinguish the first low dull murmur made by an o’V coming train while it is still a mile or more away. It was a murmur that grew and deepened with every second, swelling gradually into the hoarse inarticulate roar of an express train coming towards us at full speed. Suddenly the whistle sounded its loud, shrill, imperative summons. For one moment I tore my eyes away from the sleeping figure. Yonder, a quarter, or it might he half a mile away, but being borne towards as in a wild rush of headlong fury, was plainly visible the glowing Cyclopean eye of the coming train. Still the whistle sounded, painful, intense—agonised, one might almost fancy. Louder and louder grew the heavy thunderous heat of the train. It was close upon us now. Suddenly the sleeping figure started to its feet—pressed its hands to its head for a moment as though lost in doubt—gave one wild, frenzied glance round—and then seizing one of the levers with both hands, pulled it back and there held it.

A sudden flash—a louder roar—and the phantom train had passed us and was plunging headlong into, the darkness beyond. The figure let go, its hold of the lever, which fell back to its original position. As it did so, a dreadful knowledge seemed all at onco to dawn on its face. Surprise, horror, anguish unspeakable—all were plainly depicted on the white, drawn features of the phantom before me. Suddenly it flung up its arms as if in wild appeal to Heaven, then sank coweringly on its knees, and buried its face in both hands with an expression of misery the most profound. Next moment the gas gave a flicker as though it were going out, and when 1 looked again Harry and I were alone. The phantom of the unhappy signalman had vanished: the noise of the phantom train had faded into silence. No sound was audible save the unceasing monotono or the electric wires above us. Hany was the first to break the spell. ‘To-day Is the eighth of September,’ he said, ‘ and it was on the eighth of September, two years ago, that the accident happened. I had forgotten the date till this moment,’

At this instant the door opened, and in came Jim Crump with tho puppy under his arm. Struck with something in our faces he looked from one to the other of us, and did not speak fos a few seconds. ‘ Hero be the pup* air*’ ho said at last, ‘and a reg’lar little beauty I call her.’ ‘Was it not two years ago this very night that the accident took place ?’ asked Harry, as be took tho puppy out of Crump’s arms into his own.

Crump. reflected for a few moments, * Yes, uir, that it was, though I’d forgotten it. It was on the Bth of September. I ought to know, because it was on that very night my youngster was horn. ’ ‘ Were you signalman here on the Bth of September last year—the year after the accident ?’

‘No, sir, a man of the name of Moffat was here then. I came on the 20th of September. Moffat was ordered to be moved. They said he had gone a little bit queer in his head. He went about saying that Dazelcy’s ghost had shown itself to him in this very box, and that he saw and heard a train come past that wasn’t a train, and I don’t know what bosh ; so it was thought best to remove him. ’

‘ We thought just now—my friend and I —that we heard a train coming, ’.said Harry as ho gently stroked the puppy. ‘ Did you hear anything as you came along ’

‘Nothing whatever, sir. Had a train been coming I must have heard it, because I walked from my house up the line. Besides, there’s no train due yet for some time. Harry glanced at me. He was evidently not minded to enlighten Crump as to anything we had seen or heard. Five minutes later we left, carrying the dog with us. Whether or not Harry said anything to his father I don’t know. This, however, I do know, that within six months from that time certain alterations were made on the line which necessitated the removal of the signalman’s box at Eavenholme Junction to a point half a mile further south. But I have never visited it since that memorable night.

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