SAVING A TROOP TRAIN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 83, 16 July 1910, Page 9

SAVING A TROOP TRAIN

A TURIL'IIXiU EPISODE OF THE RI/SSO-JAPANESE WAR. The post of Major C'hicherin, who was in charge of the military station at Shunhang, oil the Manchuria n railway, during the Russo-Japanese War, was no sinecure. Much depended on preventing the Japanese doing any damage to the line and stopping the transportation of troops. But although the Major and his staff were continually on the qui vivo, and the sentries and patrols were doubled, a daring little Jap almost wrecked a troop train, which would not only have meant the death of hundreds ot Russian soldiers, but would have hopelessly blocked the line at a time when Russia, was hurrying every available man to the front. How Major Chiclicrin saved the train from destruction and thwarted the Japanese iplot forms one of the most thrilling episodes of the ■war.

For some time the Major had been uneasy in his mind concerning one of the Chinese coolies—L'ho-ting-fu. Spies were everywhere, and one evening, while waiting for another troop train to come through, the Major confessed to the stationmaster that he believed the coolie was really a young Japanese engineer whom he had met five years previously at the Japanese Embassy in llerlin. . CONTRARY TO RIvGI'LATIOXS. To the amazement of the Major he noticed, while talking to the stationmaster, the stoker and the driver of a huge engine which had helped to bring a heavy transport in, and which was standing ready for any emergency., turn their hacks to the engine, stroll off, and sit on an adjacent wall to smoke.

It was quite contrary to the regulations for them to leave the locomotive when ready to start. A lever pressed" by an unthinking or malicious person might put the great machine into motion and change it in an instant into a fearsome monster, scattering deajth and devastation down the line. The Major was angrily striding towards the men. when suddenly the little man emerged from underneath the engine and sprang nimbly on to the foot-plate. Quick as lightning he had pressed the starting lever, aim with the same rapidity was down again and 'had Bsa'ppeared under the carriages of an empty train.

THAT VILLAINT. CHO-TIXU-FU."

Even while the Major shouted and rushed forward, the great engine, snorting and hissing, began to move ahead, before the amazed engine-driver and stoker could make out what had happened. "It's that villain, Cho-ting-fif," yelled the Major, as he drew his revolver and fired to give the alarm. Madly he rushed to the telegraph-room to alarm the military guards all along the line; but to his horror discovered that the telegraph wires had been out. "A fearful picture arose before my imagination," said the Major, when de- j scribing the incident afterwards. ''The runaway engine was under strong pressure; tie reservoir was full of water; there was iplenty of coal in the furnace, and if Cho-ting-fu understood, anything about this engine—as the cunning -r*py undoubtedly did—he inust have opened a tap through which flowed a thick sub- j stance produced from petrdleum, and largely used in Russia for heating locomotives. Therefore, the fire would be kept up and the engine would rush on- '■ ward, tearing through long tunnels and over miles of rails, to meet the crowded troop train coming tinother way. A terrible collision would take place, the line would be hopeles-dy blocked, and the death-roll must needs be frightful." A DARING PLAN. Suddenly an idea ilashed through the Major's mind. He rushed to a second reserve engine which had stood behind the one started by the spy. The driver seemed to understand him without a word, and, pressing the lever, the engine, tender foremost, moved rapidly out 'of the station and disappeared into the night in chase of the runaway. Working as he had never worked before, the stoker shovelled on coal, and soon they were tearing through the night at a pace of eighty versts (just over fifty miles) an hour. Mile after mile they covered, straining through the gloom to catch the first glimpse of their quarry. Suddenly the Major was attracted hy a loud cry from the driver as they rounded a curve. In the distance the white light at the hack of the runaway engine'* tender swung into view. "Everything now depended on coolness and dexterity," to quote the Major's own words. "While the stoker piled on yet more fuel I hurriedly explained my plan to the driver, and climbed out on to the coal stacked up in the tender, endeavoring to balance myself as the flying leviathan thundered along the track, swaying dizzily from side to side. The distance between the racing engines diminished perceptibly. Presently it was only a hundred yards; in half a minute, fifty. Then an anxious ilook came into the driver's face, glued tight to the glass, and his hand Vent to the lever again. Soon the distance was reduced to ten yards; then foot by foot it narrowed to three. * AN AMAZING LEAP.

"A miscalculation now meant irreparable disaster. A couple of seconds and the buffers touched with scarcely a shock. One spring and T fell with a crash on the pile of coal in front, cutting my face and hands cruelly. Leaipinc" to my feet T scrambled down into the cab and hung on to the lever. With a loud hissing the steam began escaping from the valve, and the great monster slackened its pace. Then I fell unconscious."

When the Major "came to his senses he learned that both engines had been stopped only a short distance from the tunnel. The resourceful stoker had jumped out and hung a lantern on a pole in the middle of the track. Then they returned with the two engines to Sluinhang. An hour afterwards the long military "train steamed in. It had been pulled up bv the lantern on the pole, but seeing nothing suspicious, the engineer had come on cautiously. Needless to sav, when the officers and men learned of" the part the Major had played in the affair, they cheered him to the echo.