trotted a fat
little man in the uniform of a staff officer, with whom he seemed to be
conversing familiarly.

Evidently he was of a rank that entitled him to be spared the ordeal
that awaited us lesser mortals.

The tedious business was over at last; and, once through the barrier, I
joined the throng in the restaurant, and looked around to see if he was
among them. He was not, and I guessed he had already gone on,--by a
special train probably.

The long hot day dragged on without any incident to break the monotony.
I turned in early, and must have been asleep for an hour or two when I
was violently awakened by a terrific shock that hurled me clear out of
my berth.

I sat up on the floor of the car, wondering what on earth could
have happened. The other passengers were shrieking and cursing,
panic-stricken, though I guess they were more frightened than hurt,
for the car had at least kept the rails. I don't recollect how I
managed to reach the door, but I found myself outside peering through
the semi-darkness at an appalling sight.

[Illustration: _His stern face, seen in the light of the blazing
wreckage, was ghastly._ Page 87]

The whole of the front part of the train was a wreck; the engine lay on
its side, belching fire and smoke, and the cars immediately behind it
were a heap of wreckage, from which horrible sounds came, screams of
mortal fear and pain. Even as I stood, staring, dazed like a drunken
man, a flame shot up amid the piled-up mass of splintered wood. The
wreckage was already afire, and as I saw that, I dashed forward. Others
were as ready as I, and in half a minute we were frantically hauling at
the wreckage, and endeavoring to extricate the poor wretches who were
writhing and shrieking under it, before the fire should reach them.

A big man worked silently beside me, and together we got out several of
the victims, till the flames drove us back, and we stood together, a
little away from the scene, breathing hard, and incapable for the moment
of any fresh exertion.

I looked at him then for the first time, though I had known all along
that he was my courtly friend of the previous morning. His stern face,
seen in the sinister light of the blazing wreckage, was ghastly; it was
smeared with the blood that oozed from a wound across his forehead, and
his blue eyes were aflame with horror and indignation.

He was evidently quite unaware of my presence, and I heard him mutter:
"It was meant for me! M