LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1577, 10 March 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

ONLY JUST SAVED. [" Cassell's Magazine/"] ( Concluded.) ' But now it's all over,' exclaimed the old gentleman, with heightened color and flashing eyes. 'He has gone his own way, his own headstrong, foolish way, and he has ruined himself.' ' Did I understand yoti he is not forthcoming V asked Mr Turner. ' Just so. He's made off like a scampnot that he is one, but what will people think? The dreadfully stupid boy, after writing me as he did, must go and downright bully our secretary at the bank, who gave him a hint that harm might come of it. Whereupon, it would appear, the idiot returned to his lodgings, paid his few debts (for he was a' thrifty and honorable young blockhead), put his trifling possessions top-ether, and disappeared with them in a cab.' ' Truly deplorable. But now the thing is to find this crazed lad. We must take all necessary steps the police advertisements ' ' Not one so far as I am concerned, Turner. That youth might in time have been my son-in-law, rich, blessed with a dear and loving wife —every kind of happiness at his —but no, we are parted. He may be a fool, he may be a madman. To neither will I trust my Laura. My decision is irrevocable, pray say no more. Willie Stansfield must do something very praiseworthy indeed before he returns to my favor.' He thought of these words in many an after year. • What a hopless couple of men to deal with!' soliloquised Mr Turner, as he wended his way home. ' One the impersonation of violent temper, and the other of obstinacy. And so this quarrel, which might so easily be arranged, is to cause ever so much suffering *>nd injury without any prospect of a termination. It is truly deplorable.' It was ; but as to bringing Willie Stansfield back, that was out of the question. He had already started for America. # * * «

There is something doubly alarming and horrible in those instances of wickedness for which no motive can possibly be assigned. As I, iu my mind's eye, five years after the conversation just related, see a humau being on whose face is stamped indelibly cruelty of the vilest order, crawling about a railway embankment in the Unitei Stages, T have a shuddering conviction that diabolical monstrosity is about to be perpetrated. And so it is. The wietched creature ia carrying a huge bar of iron (stolen from some store at hand, I suppose), and with it he "lips down the emban'-ment, at the risk of his life, until he reaches the entrance to a tunnel. There across the rails he deposits his burden. He i" careful so to place it that by no possibility shall the engine of the doomed train now fa«t approaching clear its path of the encumbrance. He chuckles as this assurance strikes him fully. Then he smites the bar a heavy blow with the palm of his hand, and dreadful madness glistens in his coa' -black eyei as he mutters, ' Fine, fine!' A minute after, and he is over the embankment again; and half an-hour subsequently when all is confusion, and horror, and snflvring, he quietly tells the of bis deed, and is born away with loathing to await the time when it shall be pronounced whether he shall be put out of life as a malignant criminal, or V>e henceforth well housed and cared for as an interesting lunatic of peculiar propensities. Into that train, now coming on to its fate, there stepped at the terminal station an elde'ly gentleman and a beautiful girl They had some to America from England for the benefit of the young lady's not over strong health.

'What a lot of fog we do get here !' said the gentleman testily. 'We started because it was a charming morning, and now we are in a damp mist, getting darker every moment. A blessed invention, those fogsignals, for I am sure the engine-driver cannot see his hand before him. ' Papa,' said the young lady timidly, and with the dreary air whi"h we associate with the looking back on long past events 'did you notice a gentleman who entered the train as we were just starting ?' ' A young man, with brown hair and dark grey eyes ? Yes, Laura ; and I thought how wonderfully like he was to that headstrong lad, Willie Stansfield. who will turn up again, I suppose one of these days.' •Do you think, papa, it could possibly have been he ?'

• There is no saying. We aVays assumed he went abroad. He may be here—may be in this train. I well remember the last words I said to Turner about him, that he muse do something very praiseworthy before he could return to my favor. I dare say, like the rest of the world, he is stiving and struggling. Lau>-a this is indeed a wretched day for travelling.' But Laura's thoughts were upon the brown hair and the grey eyes. 'This is the station, Laura, before we come to the long tunnel. On we go again How we all of us cry out for change ! Restless creatures we human beings are ! Bah ! The idea of my moralising !' and the hardheaded business man laughed at the nottion. ' I don't see anything to laugh at, papa. I feel a little dull, myself, at the moment. Do you know, I fancy I am in a more critical state than you think. I may not live, you know, papa. I may not. If I should die, you will not bury me here ? You will take me home, and ' ' My Laura, my Laura !' exclaimed her father, drawing her to him and embracing her, ' what has come over you ? What sudden alarm ie this ?' They were alone in the carriage, and the old man's tear dropped unchecked. ' it will pass away, I dare say, papa ; but a curious precentiment came over me, and I felt veak. I will talk of other things. I» wish this journey were ended, for I am rather frightened at such darkness.' ' There is nothing to fear, my girl. This line i i admirably worked, and all contingencies a-o provided for, and ' No. Not that of a heavy bar lying on the rails, planed there after the last train has been signalled 'All right.' ' Ckash ! The huge engine reared up as if in rage, and feli back na the foremost earring-s. The hitid part of the traia was jerked off the lino, the carriages falling around and upon one another in hideous confusion. Only a few cf the centre c.rringes es'*ap id injury. Mow many passengers were killed I cannot tell you now. In a sense they were favored above the crully wounded, for the summons was immediate, and was immediately obeyed. Mr Manley rose from the embankment on to which, by some eccentricity of movement of the falling carriages, he had been thrown.

' foi fi minute all W*s confnuon in his mind Then mem©** mavlneA. v".Vra was U"« a ? She remaned in *h*Ubatt«rfid ( ;oair»a>-tment upon whi"h carriage tfftS partly reMirig. He couUl just hear &er voice now, en iiig Pojr er father T'>e old man shouted for help, but were far wors * cases, arj.fi no help came A <ry th,. n arose that the tain on the ot v >er ljne was just due, and the way being blocked "by the debriß, another accident was imminen . A loud wail of despair issued from the poor father, as fruitlessly he strove to remove the great mass c? fragments in which his daughter was entombed. Who was this who, attracted by the doleful cry, approached to render aid? Mr Man'ey did not know at the moment. He simply brw a young and powerful man, and he clutched him by the shoulders, and then even sinking tm his knees before him. the old man besought him by all he held dear, by alibis hopes, of present juH future to save his chid. 'Save my Laura, my Laura, sir. and all I have shall be at your command !' What a start the young man gave ! One more close look into the suppliant's face, and then to work. What superhuman force was this which cast aside this huge bar and that groat beam ? See how the fragments fly, as though they were but pieces of a child's plaything J To the right, to the left, the masses roll; the work is more than half done, when the cry arises that the whistle of the unstopped train on the other side is audible Stand aside. No use working further. Ueath must have his additional victims. On comes the train. Only at the last moment did Willie StansfieM succeed in clasping the frame of Laura Manl*y, and bearing it a ay. Saved! Who could take her from him now?