"Here, let-down the window! Open the door! Good heavens, there'll be
some one killed! Let him be; we'll get him in. Those porters are so
officious, and they cause accidents, instead of preventing 'em. Let him
be, I tell you, and report him afterwards. There, I thought so!
They'll be killed! Heaven help him--he's down under one of the
carriages!"
So cried one of Ella's fellow-travellers as he witnessed the struggle
from within, heedless, in his excitement, that not a word he uttered was
heard by the actors in the thrilling scene. But as Max was caught by
the carriage and dragged under the train, the man threw open the window
and leaned out as far as he could, to draw his head back after a few
moments, and impart his intelligence to the pale figure close beside
him.
"I'm afraid he's killed, miss!"
Still no answer. Ella neither heard nor saw, for this part of her
life--from the time when Max caught her wrists in his, and till long
after--was a void that her memory could never again people.
"Deaf as a post, and a good thing too, poor lass!" muttered the man as
he again leaned out.
And now there was shouting, signalling, and the stopping of the train
for a few minutes, long enough for the passengers to see a motionless
form lifted from the line and borne into one of the waiting-rooms, the
passenger who had watched the proceedings having leaped out, but now
coming panting back to reach his place as the signal for starting was
once more given.
"Is he much hurt?" was eagerly asked by the other occupants of the
carnage.
"I'm afraid so," said the passenger.
"Not killed?"
"No, I don't think he's killed. You see, he went down at the end of the
platform just where it begins to slope. If it had been off the level,
he must have been crushed to death in an instant. But I didn't have
above a quarter of a minute to see him."
"It's very, very dangerous," observed one, "this trying to get into a
train when it's started."
"Very," said another; "but they will do it. That gentleman, too, was so
determined, climbing over the fence; and I suppose that made the railway
folks determined too."
"He must have been anxious to get off, or he would not have acted as he
did."
"Some particular appointment or another, I should think."
"Well, poor fellow, I hope he is not badly injured," was the charitable
wish now uttered, when a dissertation upon the right or wrong action of
porters in trying to stop people ensued, it being generally accorded
that the by-laws upon which they acted ought to be rescinded, and that
the guard ought to report all breaches of the regulations at the next
station.
And all these comments were made within Ella's hearing, but without once
diverting her steadfast stony gaze, as now, leaning back in her corner,
she looked straight out at the flying landscape as mile after mile was
passed.
Once or twice a remark was made to her, but she merely bent her head;
and at last she was allowed to remain unquestioned, unnoticed, as the
train sped on swiftly towards the great metropolis.
She changed carriages mechanically when requested, and again and again
produced her ticket, but always in the same dreamy strange way.
Passengers came, and passengers went, some speaking, others paying no
heed to their closely veiled and silent companion; but not once did Ella
speak or evince any knowledge of what was passing around.
How that journey was performed, she never knew, nor by what strange
influence she was guided in her acts; but press on she did, and to the
end.
Volume 3, Chapter XXI.