THE PANIC
Struggling to his feet, Pee-wee for a moment thought more of a bruised
back than of the tragic possibilities of his inadvertent act. His match
expired too soon to enable him to glean any information from the old,
faded time-table.
It was not till he stood in darkness that the appalling thought came to
him that a good deal more than a bruised back might be involved in his
stumble. If he had thought quicker he would never have lost the light
from that precious match for he knew that in almost every emergency
darkness is a terrible handicap.
For just a few seconds he stood, terrified, aghast, at the thought of
what he had done. No doubt at the point where that branch left the main
track there was a switch. Whether the track which branched off was just
a siding or not, made little difference, so far as this emergency was
concerned.
The switch had no doubt been set to eliminate the branch track
altogether, since the deserted neighborhood and the rusty rails
indicated that the branch, or whatever it was, was no longer used.
Suppose, then, that Pee-wee had opened the switch. A train coming from
the _west_ would enter the branch, if it were not traveling too fast. In
this latter case a catastrophe would occur at the spot.
If the train were traveling slowly it might make the unintended turn.
But if the curving track were only a siding there would be a smash-up
where the track ended. If the train were traveling from the _east_, it
would be in no danger for on such a junction the switch, however set,
would have no effect on trains running in that direction. A glance at
the accompanying rough sketch will show this.
[Illustration]
In all probability, as Pee-wee realized to his horror, the branch was
merely a siding formerly used by the factory, but in any case he knew
that a train coming from the _west_ would meet disaster a few yards east
of the tower house.
One consoling thought he had as he stood in the darkness, his breathing
quick and nervous, his mind in a state bordering on panic. He had only
to consider the peril awaiting trains from one direction, the west. Oh,
if he only had a light! In his terror and panic fear, if he only had a
light!
Pee-wee, whose wont it was freely to investigate everything, had always
held aloof from railroad apparatus and mechanism as things almost sacred
from the touch of amateurs. He had always had a kind of superstitious
awe of such things, levers, revolving lights and so forth, which are
seen in hiking near railroad tracks.
It is true that he went scout pace along railroad lines in the country
for the ties seemed to be just fitted to the stride of his small legs.
He occasionally used a rail as a tight rope, balancing an apple on his
head, a stunt which he had learned from Hervey Willetts, a blithesome
young daredevil at Temple Camp. But little metal pedestals along the way
he shunned.
And now he saw himself as the author of a horrible catastrophe. He tried
to recall and decide from which direction the distant whistle had
sounded, and to relieve his mind with the thought that perhaps it had
not been along this railroad at all. But he found little consolation in
these self-queries and thoughts.
Up to this time, Pee-wee was just a terror-stricken boy, horrified and
in awful suspense at what he had inadvertently done. And only a few
seconds had elapsed. Suddenly he found himself, as one might say, and
with a little nervous laugh at his own silly imagination, he grabbed the
tall lever to pull it back again. But it would not pull. His first panic
had been caused by the fact that he had moved it at all. He was now in a
very delirium of fear at not being able to pull it over. Whatever he had
done was irrevocable. And probably fatal.