On a Runaway Locomotive.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 43, 20 February 1892, Page 3 (Supplement)

On a Runaway Locomotive.

By Harriet Prescott Spofford,

When Laddy Kennett put his hand gently on the lever, and the great engine, with a snort and a pant and a bound, bore him oub of tho yard like the Afreote of an Eastern tale, he felt an indescribable elation, as if he already had wings. He had said to himself, ever since the day that Chatterton had given him a ride on the new railway, that he would drive an engine himself there sooner or later. And when his request had been laughed to sccrn by the authorities of the yard, he had simply resolved thab it should be sooner rather than later, and had watched his time and chance. He had dragged poor little Tim Doolan after him, not exactly by force of hand, but by force of his own stronger will; and when fatigue overcame the weary watchman, they had seen to the fires and the water, had set open the gates, and glided oub upon the main track, regardless, after the first moment of motion, of the noise they made, for once upon the way, as they were then, not all the king's horses nor all bhe king's men could overtake them. ' And there aren't any king's men here,' said Laddy, answering his own bhought.

' There's the railroad men,' said little Tim ; ' and they'll give ib to us when they do come up with us.'

'They'll have to catch us first,' said Laddy. ' Now, Tim, you hold your breath. A shooting star isn't a circumstance bo the way we're going to take this engine into San Antone. I suppose we'll get a hiding, at least I shall. Bub bhere ain'b a rod big enough for us to be afraid of, once I've driven this engine across the prairie. I guess Pall see whether I'm ever going bo be a man or not. Keeping a fellow at school when he's able to bake a brain from one end of Texas bo bhe other ! If tbey say much I'll drive right through San Antone full tilb and out bo bhe border.'

* You couldn't, said Tim. ' We'll have to stop for coal and water. And when we stop, then you be sure we're in for it I' And with that, and all the new thoughts ib involved, Tim bursb into a loud wail. • Now, Tim,' said Laddy, 'you shub up! Or I'll pitch you right oub on the prairie, and then where'll you be—wolves and all?' And Tim, more afraid of Laddy—and the prairie wolves—than of the dim whippings of the future, stopped his wail and dried his eyes, and prepared bo take whab pleasure he might in his excursion—bolerably sure, for the rest, thab tho heavier part of the blow would be sure bo fall on Laddy, the ringleader of all the mischief that boys could perpetrate. Thereupon, Tim having reached this conclusion, Laddy pulled out some sticks of sugarcane bhab he had provided, and for the time being Tim was consoled.

The soft, deep dark had lifted, with a silvery grey filtering through it; tho morning star, like a coal of fire, had burned itself into a grey ash and was gone, and of a sudden all the sky was rose, the sun was up, bho day was on them. A herd of horses shook all their tails and manes as the engine darted by, and went galloping away with a thunder that almost matched that of the engine's tread ; now they plunged through fields of white poppies, and, outlined with strange white lilies far away, they saw the creoks in which swam ducks blue as the deepest midnight blue. Now a troop of jack rabbits fled so precipitately that Laddy shrieked with laughter and mado the engine give a whistle equal to scaring any living creature throughout thab vast horizon. What a' vasb horizon ib waa—how high up in tho heaven they seemed bo be as they shot along ! Whab crystal clearness was this air, how sweet and bright and beautiful the morning was, as if the world had been jusb made ! How overy leaf upon the live oaks in the riverbottom sparkled, on the greab, sweet magnolias, the cypresses, the unknown growths all swathed in passion flowers, as they glided through the thick forests, and over the greab bridges. Here and there they passed a cotton plantation where the hands were not yet afield, or a lonely sugarplanter's house, with it jalousies and galleries, and its works on the knoll behind it. How sweet it was to have the fresh shining, dewy world all to themsolves ! Now they shot through miles and miles of sun-flowers ; here were long sbrebches purple wibh the heliotrope, scarlet and orange with the lantana, golden with the yellow indigo, creamy white with the rain lilies. Now out of a canebrake a horse's head upreared itself ; now a pair of great white horns; now what seemed a Held of primroses suddenly took wings and fled away at their approach. Here, again, were forests, every huge tree of which was hung with the dark cobweby moss swaying weirdly and funereally; and hero again they wero nearing a river, a bridge, a town ; dashing by and oub upon bhe open prairie wibh all its mesquite bushes glittering and trembling in the sun. t Well/ said Laddy, ' I reckon we re safe enough now. They can't send an engine out after us, for 'twouldn'b bo any use. And bhey couldn't send one down bo meeb us because we might run inbo it and smash both concerns. » We're in for a glorious all-do.y ride!' ~,.__, ' I'm most tired to death now, said hbble Tim: ' ', » • We'll stop ab bhe nexb water and you can (_eb out and stretch your legs,' said Laddy, patronisingly. And when presently they camo to a solitary water tank Laddy supplied the engine's needsand Tim jumped rlown for a run, startling a flock of red birds that were trying conclusions with a mocking bird in the big black-jack troo bhere by the water-tank. He presently camo clambering back. ' I was afraid of tho tarantulas,' said he. ' Well ! If I ever saw— There isn't a tarantula iv Texas that isn't in a bottle for a show. I thought you'd get some of the mulberries over there. I'll go !' and Laddy ran to gather a cap full of the black delicious if unhealthy fruit of the mulberry trees which had been planted by some old ranchman and left as he moved on. As he climbed about and picked and ate and picked ho heard a little shriek and puff, and looked around only in time to see the engine, where littlo Tim had put up his hand to try his strength on a lever, move slowly off, nnd then, as little Tim in a terror threw himself on the wrong handle, give whab seemed a bound and a roar and rush off up-the brack. in lb was in vain for Laddy to bound after it, to run screaming and hallooing. The engine slipped along like a comet, up tho lessoning perspective, and became a speck upon the horizon. What would happen now ? Tim couldn't manage that machine. He'd havo an explosion. He'd run off tho track. He wouldn't know where to shunt when ib was time for the day-train coming down from San Antone. And Laddy sab down upon the track and gave way to his feelings. He ,Wa's no longer the hero, tlu champion, t'heproud nnd exultant Laddy running off wjtna'ri engine 4 ho was a miserable. Utile; vagrant, hungry and tired, tramping up the bed of the railway. For he must either tramp ud io the hepe that little Tim might fan hmw foe oogine t«a m» i or he

must tramp down and make bhe best of his way home, crestfallen and downhearted and footsore. On the whole it seemed best to follow little Tim, which then he proceeded to do, wiping his web face on his shirb-sleeve as he wenb, for in spibe of himself a fresh burst of grief would now and again make that necessary.

Bu,b, bitter as this deserbion was bo Laddy, ib was bitterer yeb bo little Tim, who, frightened almost out of his wibs, stood staring from the cab window like a little white image, more than palsied by fear, struck as you might say bo sbone. On and on the monster that bore him sped ; the wind of its motion blew by him in a gale, a, wind that had no relation to the sweet south east wind that always blew across the pr,airie. Things slid by him like phantoms; he felt it, without saying as much, quite within the power of thab engine, going at bhab rabe, bo spin up bo the edge of the earth and off into infinite space.

Suddenly a worse horror even than this added itself to the rest. The track ran through a defile here, the walls of which, although only a few feet high, were yet too high for cattle to climb, and a bunch of cattle had broken loose from some ranch and were trotting down this defile, alarmedby the coming uproar of the engine. And in a moment the engine was upon them, into them, pver them, rearing, plunging, and the air was full of bellowing, of the hiss of escaping steam, of great white horns, of infuriated red eye 3. of lashiug of long tails, of cracking and grinding. And then a crash, a flight, a fall through space, and the engine was a mass of ruins across the track in the midst of dead and dying steers, and the rest of the yelling and leaping creatures had bounded on and away, and little Tim lay insensible on tho soft hides of a mound of dead cattle, whon nearly an hour afterward Laddy reached the spot, white himself with heat, with terror, with fatigue. His consternation, however, had given him new life afar off; he called and shouted to Tim, succeeded after a while in reviving him, and when they found no bones were broken he proceeded to drag Tim away from the dreadful scene, and they hid themselves in bhe meequite of the prairie till tho_day-train should come down. There was no need of flagging bho place wibh any danger signal—in all the long, low line of the railway there thoengineer of the day-brain could see the obstruction many a mile away. . Of course thab keen-sighted man, the engineer of No. 2, when in process of time he drew near, saw the wreck before him, slowed up his train in dismay, and by-and-by sob all hands at work to clear the track. • A wild engine.' thoy said, ' that ran into a bunch of cattle. But where in thunder was the driver—the fireman—anybody? Were they all ground to dust ?' Bub no driver or fireman was bo be found in all bhe debris ; and, more amazed than ever, brain men and passengers, when bho bract* was cleared some hours nfberward, climbed back to their places. When the train proceeded, two little tramps, unnoticed by any, were eecurely braced and hidden among tbe trucks under the last car, and carried safely back over the road on which they had thab morning begun their conquering career. Thoy crept down and off ab bhe last stopping place, still escaping observation ; and that nighb, worn oub and jusb alive, hailed their mother's doorsbeps as if bhey were the gates of heaven.

I never shall tell the punishment those bwo boys haTT. Ib was no moro than thoy deserved. And both Laddy and Tim have made a solemn pact to save their pocket money and all tho pennies that by any possibility they can earn, till it makes a sufficient sum to pay the railroad for the loss of the engine and for the killing of the cattle—for everyone of which cattle a bill was brought in by the owner as for a thoroughbred Jersey. I really cannot imagine how old they will be when that debt is paid, Ib resbs enbirely on bheir honour, for unless tbe railway people read this story they never will know who the culprits were that did that fatal business.