A RAILWAY ROMANCE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2102, 18 November 1880, Page 3

A RAILWAY ROMANCE.

One day the usually impassive Leger Sombreker (an engine driver on the Lyons railway) was found in the engine shed giving wav to a furious storm of passion because some one had made a great stain of paint on his locomotive. The violence of his rage and the caressing epithets which he address* d to the Durance (his locomotive) made the bystanders suspect that there was something wrong, and the directors were warned of it by several anonymous letters, to which, however, knowing Leger's excellent qualities, they paid no attention. Soon after this he ran through Melun and Eontainbleau at full speed without stopping, to the disgust of all the passengers, who had taken tickets for these places. Even this was forgiven him, and the chief engineer, who administered a severe reproof to him, failed to see anything strange or alarming in Sombroker's manner. Presently his madness, still unsuspected, in spite of his increasing devotion to the Durance, and neglect of his wife and child, burst out in a terrible way. He started from Paris with his wife and child Yoon in the carriage next to the engine, a circumstance which tended to reassure Ohaussang, the stoker, who, since the Melun incident, had no great love for travelling with Leger. At Montereau Leger got down to speak to his wife and Yoon, and when the train started again he put on full steam. The passengers said to each other, with the sickly smile that is common in such circumstances, " Nous allons un train, d'enfer." As the train neared Sens, Chaussang thought it was time to slacken speed. "We are coming to Sens," he observed. "Well," replied Leger, "we must Btop." "Stop!" cried Leger; "we have scarcely began to move. Stop ! Understand this t We will stop when we have gone round the world." And with these words he increased the pace of the Durance, in which for a long timo past be had secretly been making certain alterations, with a view to getting from her a higher rate of speed. Chaussang appealed and threatened in vain. Leger only replied by laughing in the very frenzy of his delight. They rushed through Sens at lightning speed. By this time alarm had seized on all the passengers except a newly married couple in one carriage. Lovers and fools are all alike. Sombrekcr and the married couple were the only persons who were calm. In the other carriages scenes of a harrowing kind took place The telegraph had been set in motion to clear the way for the mad train, and from every placo that it pi (Bed messages were sent to the chief office at Paris. At Dijon, Chaussang, who at first had been overwhelmed by the

vaatnesa of the catastrophe, recovered his presence of mind. He shouted Yoon's name in Leger's ear, but -without effect, and then tried what force would do. As the train flashed through Dijon the crowd of specta> tors caught a glimpse of two men struggling violently on the engine. The fight was fierce and brief, and Legor won it. When he saw the stoker lying exhausted on the coals he addressed the Durance with cries of triumph and encouragement ; and, breaking the stem of the safety-valve, he covered it with an enormous mass of coal. " The devil's in the man," muttered Chaussang. Then he made his way to the first carriage, and, at the risk of his life and of the child's, and in spite of its mother's violent resistance, he carried Toon back to the engine with him. All that he gained by this was the warm, thanks of Leger, by

whose side Yoon stood, delighting as much as his father in the furious and ever-increas-ing speed of the train. Then a man in the first carriage took out a gun whioh he had with him and fired at lieger without hitting him ; but before he could repeat the attempt Marie, lieger's wife, tore the gun from his hand and flung it out at the window. Meanwhile one of the back carriages caught fire. Certain sounds on the engine told Chaussang that the end was approaching. Water at the same time was wanted for the boiler, and Ohaussang knew that if it was supplied the final catastrophe would take place at once. With a oord whioh he had got from a passenger he tied up the tap of the reservoir, and the time it took lieger to undo the fastenings just sufficed for Ohaussang, carrying Yoon in his arms, to unfasten the couplings of the engine. The breathless locomotive having been pushed forward by the train, tr:e stoker was able to] unscrew the couplings and untie the chains. He was now standing on the buffer, his one hand engaged with his work and the other carrying Sombreker's child. The looomotive, relieved of the weight of the train, took a fresh bound and shot off with the velocity of a bullet from a gun. The waggons, consequent on the acquired velocity, rolled along for a while, but soon abandoned their giddy speed._ The guards, who saw the machine running on before furiously, tightened up the wheels, and in a few minutes everybody wbb landed. One man only did not leave his place, and he was Chaussang. He gassed on the Durance, whieh was now half a mile away. By means of his sails and teeth Legor had succeeded in freeing the tap from the cords with whioh it ■ was tied. There was a sound heard like the firing of artillery ; a shower of rubbish was seen shooting up into the air. The Durance i had gone to smithereens, and the driver Sombreker had leaped with her, shooting .' victory.—" Saturday Review."