A WRECKING TRAIN.
While Rod lay in a dreamless sleep, which is the best and safest of
remedies for every ill, mental or physical, that human flesh is heir to, a
wrecking train arrived from New York. With it came a doctor, who was at
once taken to the farm-house. He first looked at the sleeping lad, but
would not allow him to be wakened, then he turned his attention to the
victims of the disaster, whose poor maimed bodies were so sadly in need of
his soothing skill.
During the long hours of the night, while the doctor was busy with his
human wrecks, the gang of experienced workmen who had come by the same
train, was rapidly clearing the wreck of cars from the tracks and putting
them in order for a speedy resumption of traffic. The wrecking train to
which they belonged was made up of a powerful locomotive and three cars.
The first of these was an immensely strong and solid flat, supporting a
small derrick, which was at the same time so powerful as to be capable of
lifting enormous weights. Besides the derrick and its belongings the flat
carried only a few spare car trucks.
Next to it came a box-car, filled with timber ends for blocking, hawsers,
chains, ropes, huge single-, double-, and treble-blocks, iron clamps, rods
and bolts, frogs, sections of rail, heavy tarpaulins for the protection of
valuable freight, and a multitude of other like supplies, all so neatly
arranged as to be instantly available.
Last, and most interesting of all, came the tool-car, which was divided
by partitions into three rooms. Of these, the main one was used by the
members of the wrecking gang as a living-room, and was provided with
bunks, a cooking-stove and utensils, and a pantry, well stocked with
flour, coffee, tea, and canned provisions. The smaller of the two end
rooms contained a desk, table, chairs, stationery and electrical supplies.
It was used by the foreman of the wrecking gang, as an office in which to
write his reports, and by the telegraph operator, who always accompanies
a train of this description. This operator's first duty is to connect an
instrument in his movable office with the railroad wire, which is one of
the many strung on poles beside the track. From the temporary station thus
established he is in constant communication with headquarters, to which he
sends all possible information concerning the wreck, and from which he
receives orders.
In the tool-room at the other end of this car was kept everything that
experience could suggest or ingenuity devise for handling and removing
wrecked cars, freight, or locomotives. Along the sides were ranged a score
or so of jack-screws, some of them powerful enough to lift a twenty-ton
weight, though worked by but one man. There were also wrenches, axes,
saws, hammers of all sizes, crowbars, torches, lanterns, drills, chisels,
files, and, in fact, every conceivable tool that might be of use in an
emergency.
In less than three hours after the arrival of the wrecking train at the
scene of the accident on the New York and Western road, the disabled
locomotive, which had lain on its side in the ditch, had been picked up
and replaced on the track. Such of the derailed cars as were not burned
or crushed beyond hope of repair had also been restored to their original
positions, scattered freight had been gathered up and reloaded, all
inflammable _debris_ was being burned in a great heap at one side, the
tracks were repaired, and so little remained to tell of the disaster, that
passengers by the next day's trains looked in vain for its traces.
The first train to go through after the accident was Snyder Appleby's
special. The private secretary had visited the farm-house to insist that
Rod Blake should accompany him to New York; but he was met at the door by
the watchful sheriff, who sternly refused to allow his sleeping charge to
be awakened or in any way disturbed.
"You needn't worry yourself about him," said the sheriff. "He'll come
to New York fast enough, and I'll come with him. We'll hunt the
Superintendent's office as quick as we get there, and maybe you won't be
so glad to see us as you think you will. That's the best I can promise
you, for that young fellow isn't going to be disturbed before he gets good
and ready to wake up of his own accord. Not if I can help it, and I rather
think I can."
"Oh, well," replied Snyder, who in the seclusion of his car had heard
nothing of Rod's brave fight. "If he is such a tender plant that his sleep
can't be interrupted, I suppose I shall have to go on without him, for my
time is too valuable to be wasted in waiting here any longer. But I warn
you, sir, that if you don't produce the young man in our office at an
early hour to-morrow morning the company will hold you personally
responsible for the loss of those diamonds."
So saying, and ordering Conductor Tobin with the other witnesses to
accompany him, the self-important young secretary took his departure,
filled with anger against Rod Blake, the sheriff who had constituted
himself the lad's champion, the wreck by which he had been delayed, and
pretty nearly everything else that happened to cross his mind at that
moment.
As for Rod, he slept so peacefully and soundly until long after sunrise,
that when he awoke and gazed inquiringly about him, he was but little the
worse for his thrilling experiences of the previous night. His first
question after collecting his scattered thoughts was concerning the
welfare of the man for whom he had risked so much a few hours before.
"The poor fellow died soon after midnight," replied the sheriff. "He did
not suffer, for he was unconscious to the last, but in spite of that he
left you a legacy, which I believe you will consider an ample reward for
your brave struggle to save him. At any rate, I know it is one that you
will value as long as you live."