LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1659, 14 June 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THE RED SIGNAL: OR, WINTER LIFE ON THE RAIL. BY MNEEOSYNE. * Do you think yon can get through ?’ ‘Yes. if steam a*:d iron and fleet can do it,’ replied Dick Elliott, patting the brightly kept brasses of his engine as if it bad been some mammoth pet. ‘ But,’ continued the superintendent, hesitatmgly, ‘ you know the te’egraph re ports of deep snow in the cuts, frozen switches, and all that sort of thing ?' ‘Can’t hHp it,’ was tho confident response. ‘ Dick Elliott and the “ Monarch ” have never yet been stopped —never lost a single trip since I first put my hand on the lever and made the whistle talk.’

‘ Well, it is very important to make the run, but many of the boys think it impossible.’ The heavily-moustached lip of the engineer curled with scorn. Day and right for ten years he had made his connections ; had been singularly fortunate; a man possessed of uncommon strength, and more than all, believed in himself and that his engine could accomplish ev< n supernatural things. Implicit faith also had he in bis fireman. Together they had defied tempest and darkness, had overleaped broken rails dashed over swaying bridges, and sped through flaming timber and burning prairie without blanching of cheek or quivering of nerve, ‘What do you think, «. barley V he questioned, turning to tho fireman. ‘ Can we get through ?’

‘Of course!’ was the answer. ‘lf we can't, nobody can ; and what the Monarch esn’t do there is no use for anything to try.’ Dick Eliiott laughed pleasantly, and announced to tho superintendent his readiness to start as soon aa steam was got up. Still tho official hesitated. Human life was held at some value by him, and he knew and appreciated the worth of such a man as Elliott —a man to be always trusted, and as true as steel.

‘ I wish you to calculate the chances well, Dick,’ he said. 1 1 am the very last to send anotlur to death, and especially such a brave fellow as you. Truthfully speaking. I think there is considerable doubt about your being able to get through, and there is danger in the undertaking. Besides, your life is not the only one to be weighed. Your wife and children—’

‘ D n’t 1 ’ interrupted the engineer, drawing the s’eove of his coat over his eyes ‘don’t talk of them. If anything should happen you would see they did not suffer. I know you would, and Jennie wculd sooner I died like a man than slunk away from danger like a coward. Go and fire up, Charley, and we’ll start.’ ‘You are a noble fellow, Tick,’ said the official, grasping the honest, toil-stained hand, ‘and your wife and children shall not be forgotten if anything—’ ‘Oh,’ was the cheiry interruption, ‘nothing will happen more than a breakdown and I’ll soon come whistling back and laugh at the men who were afraid of a little rough weather and snow.’

A telegram was at that moment placed in the hand of the superintendent, and his face darkened as he read it aloud: ‘ Line down at Marston, No communication beyond.’ ‘ And,’ interposed the engineer, wavering for an instant, * the long drawbridge over the deep river is beyond, and —— (immediately recovering his hardihood) but no matter, the tender is a c ireful fellow, and the red light will certainly bo burning if anything is wrong. All ready. Charley? Well, I’ll just run over and bid Jennie and the little ones good-bye, and get a pail of dinner, and ’ ‘You need not trouble yourself about that,’ said the superintendent. ‘ I’ll seo you have plenty to eat and money in case of,’ he was about to say ‘ accident, ’ but changed it to * delay.’ ‘ Good enough 1 See that the fi-e is brisk, plenty of steam, and everything well oiled, Charley, and it will take something worse than any snow-drift I ever saw to stop us.’ The fireman did his duty faithfully, the official did not forget his promises, and after a few words of explanation and consolation to his wife, and kisses for both her and the babies, Dick Elliott stepped aboard his engine, pulled open, whistled shrilly and defiantly, and the Monarch dashed awry to battle with sleeted tempest and darkness and dangers unknown amid the enthusiastic cheers of an admiring crowd. For miles the run was safe and speedy. Without pausing, except for water, they dashed by farm house and through village, whirling the snow from the pilot, as f 'am from the swiftly driven prow of steamer in mid-ocean.

‘We’ll soon reach Marston,’said the engineer, cheerily, ‘ and, if we find nothing worse ahead, will make good time ’ ‘ Yes,’ replied the fireman, leaning out of the cab, and glancing somewhat anxiously ahead ; 1 but, you know, there is a long and deep cut between us and the station, and we are certain to find trouble there.’ Dick Elliott looked closely at the steamgauge, and noticed with pleasure the strong, smooth working of the machinery. The speed at which they were running was rapid. In the language of the craft, the Monarch ‘ was chawing her breakfast,’ otherwise fast consuming co»l and creating steam proportionately. He knew by repeated testa the power of the monster machine, the perfect reliability of its make, and rather courted an encounter with the deeply piled aud compact drift he saw in the Marston cut. ‘lt wili be more than ten feet of snow that will stop us,’ he muttered, from between set teeth and compressed lips, as he stood ready to ‘ pull her open’ while nearing the obstacle.

A moment later they were plunging into the drift, buried and at a stand-still. Even tho Monarch had found forces in nature it could not overcome by any ordinary effort, and a shadow of disappointment flitted over the face of Elliott as ho backed out to increase speed and power for a second trial. With the rnsh of a whirlwind the large engine dashed forward, pressed deeply, gained a few feet, and then stopped, trembling in every j dnt and the drivers revolving ceaselessly, the snow a more compact mass ahead, and tumbling down upon them as if to for over bury thorn from sight. • Wo can’t do it,’ said the fireman. ‘ For onco wo have met our match.’ ‘Have wo ?' answered Elliott. ‘l’ll show you. We’ll go through or be wrecked, ’ Again the Monarch was backed, steam increased, the throttle jammed open, and, as some monster with brow of steel and jaws of flamo, the engine forged ahead, struggled, shivered, paused, fairly bellowed _ as in wrath, and then it shot ahead, leaving tho track cumbered with the displaced snow, and dashed in triurap up to the station at Marston. The news sped backward along tho wires, thrilling the hearts at home, but beyond all was a blank. Nothing could be learned but rumors of disaster, immense dri f ts, crippled trains, and dangerous bridges. * Tell the old man,’ said Elliott to the telegraph operator, speaking of tho superintendent, as he sprang aboard again, ‘ that I am bound to go through or bust.’ ‘ It will bo bust for certain, aud you are a venturesome fool, Dick,’ was the answer. The Monarch waited not for orders, and the brave engineer failed to hear tho comments upon his tempting death. The track for a few mfles from tho station was air-line clear, and they rapidly passed from sight to accomplish the purpose or leave the engine a hopeless mass of broken aud twisted iron, and two mangled and frozen corpses. Onward over the treacherous rails, through snow and ice, over cracking culverts and rocking bridges, they sped on as if driven by doom, The milestones seemed almost as the stones in a graveyard, so swiftly they ran. In the thickening r glnora of night, in a wild and terrible storm of driving sleet, beneath a moonless and starless sky, they sped on, with furnace crowded, steam hissing and whistle screaming as demoniac laughter, running a mad race against time and tho elements and death. To those on tho engine it was triumph in the present, r o matter how dearly purchased iu the future ; to those who gazed at the fiery-hearted monster dashing through tho gioom, it was, indeed, as if the burning pit of tho hereafter had been transported to earth and harnessed to wheels. With hand on lever, with head out of the cab window, stood tho engineer ; with hand on bell rope and whistle, and eagerly watching from the opposite side, was the fireman, and both riding a race that would never bo banished from memory ; if they survived to tell the story, and iu tho wild excitement, danger was forgotten. They were lifted above it by the thrill of doing what others

dared not. There was something in the might of conquest that made them for the time superior to fear. It was not a caso where

Doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might

win, By fearing to attempt. With flushed cheek, smile-parted Ups, flashing eyes, and braced nerves and muscles, they gave no heed to the thousand dangers ahead, a’mrst longed to have them rise d fiant in their path, so strange a paradox is man

A sudden, sharp curve, and they awoke from the dream of security to a sente of the situation, to a forcible, realistic view of what was before. The fireman leaned to the engmeer, and shouted so as to be heard eveu above the jarring and clashing of machinery and elemental war.

‘ We will soon be upon Deep River Bridge, and ’

"God help us if we cannot see the red fdgna 1 , and anything is wrong,’ and thought and heart flew back to the wife and little ones waiting prayerfully and tearfully for his return.

There was not another word spoken, the heart was too full for meaningless words ; but with strained eyes and bated breath and troubled brain they looked ahead, fearing, hoping, doubting. Another curve, a short, straight, downgrade run, and they would thunder over the long bridge, if, indeed, it remained still standing—if the draw had not been swung open for the passage of ice running in mad rioting, destructive force with the swollen current towards the sea. ‘lf?’ Never in their lives, perhaps never in that of any man, was more concentrated in that little word ; never more surely hung upon it life, and widowhood, and orphanage, wreck and mangled limbs and crushed-out breath 1 Years are condensed iut) a heart-threb at such a moment, and prayers into a pulseboat ; all of hopes are swift as the flashing of a sunbeam; all of love into a single glimpse of Heaven j all of despair into a fleeting shadow, and all the dread and horror of death into a spasm. Tho curve was made; tho trick lay straight before them ; Dick Elliott leaned still further out and gazed ahead with strained eyes. The sleety snow had thickened, was driven nr re furiously on by the howling wind, and clung to everything it touched until the scene was that of Arctio land and Polar terrors.

‘Charley,’ whispered the engineer, hoarsely, ‘can you see the signal at the bridge ? ’ ‘ See ? ’ answered the fireman, ‘ a man might as well be blind., ‘ Then heaven keep us.’ ‘ Why stop and—’ *Bo forever taunted as a coward ! Never! Jump if you are afraid. Igo through, engine and all! ’ The hands of the two men almost involuntarily met in a grasp of the most brave frienship, and the eyes flashed de termination. Whatever befel one would both, and with hell ringing and whistle screaming, they kept their onward course, silent and watchful.

4 The signal, Dick ! I see it ! ’ at length exclaimed the fireman. * Red or white ? ’ ‘White!’

* God be praised ! ’ But the jubilant hope was instantly dashed to the earth. In such a storm, with everything cumbered and clad in ice, the red glasses might easily be transformed Into sheeted whit l , and the signal of danger shine as one of safety to lure to destruction. ‘ Charley ? ’

‘Dick?’

* Another instant will be life or death. If you pull through and I do not, look after my wife and children and —oh, my God! the red signal is up The bridge is open or gone!’ The heat within, the whirling blast without, or both combined, had cleared the glass of the lantern, and it flashed out crimson for a moment —flashed out upon the «hasm, a bloody warning of doom and death.

Reverse? It was too late! Upon tho icy rails there was no possible cohesion ; with all of steam shut off they would still slide downward swift as the sled of the boy upon the snow-packed hill. They knew—felt in every fibre of their being—the certainty of an instantaneous and terrible death; saw the black gulf of the river yawning for their bodies, the fingers of fate reaching out for their bodies, the fingers of fate reaching out for their sonlq and yet had no power to avert. Swiftly as the lightning’s flash they were speeding on, and equally swift their hearts were turned to home and loved ones, and then stood still as if suddenly frozen to ice.

Before them, in their very path, crouching down between the rails, almost under the wheels of the panting, rushing engine, they saw the form of a woman, pressing to heart a child with one hand, while (he other was raised aloft to the great God who alone could save. Crushed, torn, mangled beyond recognition they would be in the drawing of another breath, and the brave engineer aud fireman held their own, forgetting their coming fate, forgetting open-bridge chasm, black rolling river, gr ndling, crushing ice, and the awful hor.ors that can find no reproduction in words. The snow had again suddenly slipped from the lantern, and tire red light Hashed out as the eyes of fiends, clearly giving to view the dangers ahead, and the kneeling, praying woman and innocent child. Above the roar and hissing of steam, the jar and rattling of wheels, the wailing of wind and pattering of sleet, they fancied they could hear her frantic shrieks for safety and mercy, and with hated breath, clenched teeth, and closed eyes they stood while the monster engine rushed upon its human aud carried them to their own doom, b'um up all of life, bring every terror and agony of three-score years into the shortest ticking of the clock, and they could never have known more of utter despair aud misery than in that brief uncertainty. Their blood refused to stir, their hearts to act, their limbs to move; aud then, with a turn bo swife aud unexpected as to throw them from their feet, engineer and firemen lay piled together upon the plow of the cab, and the Monarch rushed down a short switch, leaped in its headlong speed the obstacles at the end, and cooled its heart of fire in tho surging waters! Saved! woman and child, engineer and fireman, saved ! But all their forma were alike limp and nerveless when carried into tho watchouse by the bridge, and, long before their tongues could utter the words, their hearts breathed blessings upon Him whesa forethought had rescued their lives when all of hope was gone and they were sinking to tho lo Aest depths of black despair. A few days later the Monarch rolled into the home-station, and loud were the praises showered upon Dick Elliott and the fireman. But they were voiceless. They had nearly to clasp hands with death, and stood beneath the shadow of eternity to care for human applause, and days passed before even the superintendent learned tho history of that fearful midnight ride, and the life and death that hung upon the clear flashing of a rod signal.