THE coroner's jury was inclined at the time to blame the signalman,
but the Board of Trade inquiry established the fact that the accident
was due to the engine-driver's neglect to keep a proper lookout.
However, as the driver was dead and his fireman with him, the law very
leniently took no further action in the matter.
About three o'clock in the morning, as the train was crossing a bleak
Yorkshire moor seven miles from Tetley Junction, the curate suddenly
left the seat on which he lay stretched dreaming of Eileen and flew
across the compartment on to the recumbent form of a stout commercial
traveler. Then he rebounded to the floor and woke up--unhurt.
"'Tis an accident, lad!" gasped the commercial traveler as he got his
wind.
"So it seems," said the curate. "Hold tight! She's rocking!"
The commercial traveler, who was mechanically groping under the seat for
his boots,--commercial travelers always remove their boots in
third-class railroad compartments when on night journeys,--followed the
curate's advice and braced himself with his feet against the opposite
seat for the coming _bouleversement_.
After the first shock the train had gathered way again--the light engine
into which it had charged had been thrown clear off the track--but only
for a moment. Suddenly the reeling engine of the express left the rails
and staggered drunkenly along the ballast. A moment later it turned
over, taking the guard's van and the first four coaches with it, and the
whole train came to a standstill.
It was a corridor train, and unfortunately for Gerald Gilmore and the
commercial traveler their coach fell over corridor side downward. There
was no door on the other side of the compartment--only three windows,
crossed by a stout brass bar. These windows had suddenly become
sky-lights.
They fought their way out at last. Once he got the window open, the
curate experienced little difficulty in getting through; but the
commercial traveler was corpulent and tenacious of his boots, which he
held persistently in one hand while Gerald tugged at the other. Still,
he was hauled up at last, and the two slid down the perpendicular roof
of the coach to the permanent way.
"That's done, anyway!" panted the drummer; and sitting down he began to
put on his boots.
"There's plenty more to do," said the curate grimly, pulling off his
coat. "The front of the train is on fire. Come!"
He turned and ran. Almost at his first step he cannoned into a heavy
body in rapid motion. It was Excalibur.
"That you, old friend?" observed the curate. "I was on my way to see
about you. Now that you are out, you may as well come and bear a hand."
The pair sprinted along the line toward the blazing coaches.
* * * * *
It was dawn--gray, weeping, and cheerless--on Tetley Moor. Another
engine had come up from behind to take what was left of the train back
to the Junction. Seven coaches, including the lordly sleeping saloon,
stood intact; four, with the engine and tender, lay where they had
fallen, a mass of charred wood and twisted metal.
A motor car belonging to a doctor stood in the roadway a hundred yards
off, and its owner, with a brother of the craft who had been a passenger
on the train, was attending to the injured. There were fourteen of these
altogether, mostly suffering from burns. These were made as comfortable
as possible in sleeping berths their owners had vacated.
"Take your seats, please!" said the surviving guard in a subdued voice.
He spoke at the direction of a big man in a heavy overcoat, who appeared
to have taken charge of the salvage operations. The passengers clambered
up into the train.
Only one hesitated. He was a long, lean young man, black from head to
foot with soot and oil. His left arm was badly burned; and seeing a
doctor disengaged at last, he came forward to have it dressed.
The big man in the heavy overcoat approached him.
"My name is Caversham," he said. "I happen to be a director of the
company. If you will give me your name and address I will see to it
that your services to-night are suitably recognized. The way you got
those two children out of the first coach was splendid, if I may be
allowed to say so. We did not even know they were there."
The young man's teeth suddenly flashed out into a white smile against
the blackness of his face.
"Neither did I, sir," he said. "Let me introduce you to the responsible
party."
He whistled. Out of the gray dawn loomed an eerie monster, badly singed,
wagging its tail.
"Scally, old man," said the curate, "this gentleman wants to present you
with an illuminated address. Thank him prettily!" Then, to the doctor:
"I'm ever so much obliged to you; it's quite comfortable now."
He began stiffly to pull on his coat and waistcoat. Lord Caversham,
lending a hand, noted the waistcoat and said quickly:--
"Will you travel in my compartment? I should like to have a word with
you if I may."
"I think I had better go and have a look at those poor folks in the
sleeper first," replied the curate. "They may require my services
professionally."
"At the Junction, then, perhaps?" suggested Lord Caversham.
At the Junction, however, the curate found a special waiting to proceed
north by a loop line; and, being in no mind to receive compliments or
waste his substance on a hotel, he departed forthwith, taking his
charred confederate, Excalibur, with him.