Mr. Osborne in the _Sunday at Home_, says, “I have heard from a friend a
strange story of a tunnel, which I will try to tell you as it was told to
me. A well-known engineer was walking one day through a tunnel, a narrow
one, and as he was going along, supposing himself safe, he thought his
ear caught the far-off rumble of a train _in the tunnel_. After stopping
and listening for a moment, he became sure it was so, and that he was
caught, and could not possibly get out in time. What was he to do?
Should he draw himself up close to the side wall, making himself as small
as possible, that the train might not touch him. Or should he lie down
flat between the rails and let the train pass over him. Being an
engineer, and knowing well the shape of things, he decided to lie down
between the rails as his best chance. He had to make up his mind
quickly, for in a minute or so the whole train came to where he lay, and
went thundering over him, and—did him no harm whatever. But he
afterwards told his friends, that in that brief moment of time, while the
train was passing over, he saw his whole past life spread out like a map,
like an illuminated transparency, with every particular circumstance
standing out plain.”