d. The oscillation was most marked, and walls and telegraph posts
seemed to fly past so quickly as to dazzle the sight. Miss Sherbourne
closed her eyes; the whirling landscape made her head ache, and the
swaying of the carriage had become very unpleasant. She took hold of the
strap to steady herself, and was debating whether it would be better to
close the rattling window, when, without further warning, there came a
sudden and awful crash, the impact of which hurled the baby on to her
knee, and telescoped the walls of the compartment. For a few seconds she
was stunned with the shock. When she recovered consciousness she found
herself lying on her side under a pile of wreckage, instinctively
clutching the little child in her arms. She moved her limbs cautiously,
and satisfied herself that she was unhurt; part of the roof had fallen
slantwise, and by so doing had just saved her from injury, penning her
in a corner of the overturned carriage. The smashed window was
underneath, about eighteen inches above the ground, for the train in
toppling over had struck a wall, and lay at an inclined angle.

From all around came piteous groans and cries for help, but Miss
Sherbourne could see nobody, the broken woodwork cutting her off
completely from the rest of the compartment. The baby in her arms was
screaming with fright. Fortunately for herself, she preserved presence
of mind and a resourceful brain. She did not lose her head in this
emergency, and her first idea was to find some means of escape. She
stretched out her hand and broke away the pieces of shivered glass till
the window beneath her was free; then, still clasping the child, she
managed to crawl through the opening on to the line below. So narrow was
the space between the ground and the wreckage above her that she was
forced to lie flat and writhe herself along. It was a slow and painful
progress, and the light was so dim that she could scarcely see, while at
any moment she expected to find her way blocked by fallen woodwork. Yet
that was her one chance of safety, and at any cost she must persevere.
She never knew how far she crawled; to her it seemed miles, though
probably it was no greater distance than the length of the carriage: but
at last she spied daylight, and, struggling through a hole above her
head, she climbed over the ruins of a luggage compartment, and so on to
the bank of grass edging the line.

The wind was blowing strongly over the moor, so strongly tha