CHILD'S MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14103, 3 July 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHILD'S MARVELLOUS ESCAPE.

ORDEAL OF A RAILWAY SIGNAL- !;■'.:, '.. . _ MAN. : : --X:X^iM A siGN-AX-MAN named Lines, employed in the signal-box near Soham station, on-.the Great Eastern railway, underwent an ordeal lately that was sufficient to try the. strongest nerves. lie had just signalled w " line clear" for the Ipswich express when, glancing towards . the down line .along which the express would pass in a few/momentSj he saw "a ; little : ;four-year-old girl -named Louis Pryke, the daughter of the village butcher, crossing the line. It was too late for him to .stop the express, he could not reach the child/ in time to save her, and he realised that if he shouted to her she would be certain to stand still ami look in his . direction. Slowly/the ; girl -eh- - . tered the four-foot, way, unconscious of the 'approaching train. ,As th? express came into view she;; was approaching the outer rail: and safety. The engine was within ] one hundred yards of her when she put one leg over the rail. . Even then she was un- j aware of the race she was ';; running with"i death. She raised the other leg, and now she was within inches of safety. The train flashed past, and Lines covered his face I with his .hands to shut out the sight. When he rushed to the. spot he found the little one lying by the side of the line, unconscious, but alive. Her escape hid been little short of miraculous. Only the front, wheel guard had caught her uplifted leg, and she had "been hurled' a dozen yards, alighting on a heap of litter./ - A doctor who was summoned discovered that not a bone had/been broken, and that she, was suffering/from nothing worse 'than,, a few. bruises and scratches.