errific speed and violent swaying of the train, the
shrill howl of the ceaseless whistle, the terrible darkness and silence
of everything outside his immediate surroundings, and the recollection
of that crowd of terrified faces, all seemed to thrill him with a sense
of impending horror, and the wretched man sat terror-stricken on his
seat, a mere mass of highly-strung and delicate nerves.

[Illustration: "SUDDENLY A FACE PASSED THE WINDOW."]

Suddenly, as he looked into the black night, a face passed the window,
as of someone walking along the footboard to the engine; a stern-set
face, as of one going to certain danger and needing all the pluck he
possessed to carry him through: and at the apparition the traveller
fairly shrieked aloud; but the face passed on and was gone.

In another moment there was a sudden shout--a terrific crash--a wild
chaos of sight and sound--and our traveller knew no more.

When next he found his senses, he was lying among cushions and rugs in
the waiting-room at Tunbridge Wells Station. He awoke with a faint
shiver, and tried to raise himself, but found to his astonishment that
he could not so much as lift a finger. As a matter of fact, he was among
those whom the busy surgeons had given up as a desperate case; and,
after doing all in their power to ease him, abandoned in favour of more
hopeful subjects; but this he did not know.

Several of the passengers whose injuries were only very slight were
discussing the accident in an animated manner, and, as usual in such
cases, many wild and fanciful conjectures were passed about as truth. At
last one said:--

"Does anyone know the rights of the matter?"

"Yes, I do," volunteered a young man with an arm in a sling; and Margraf
lay silently listening, unable to move or speak.

"Well, what is it?"

"Just after we passed Grove Park, the fireman was on the front of the
engine oiling, when he felt the locomotive increasing in speed till it
became so appalling that he grew terrified and could not get back. He is
a young fellow, and this is his trial trip. At length he managed to
crawl back to the cab, where he found the driver lying, as he supposed,
dead. This so increased his terror that he was only able to open the
whistle and pull the cord communicating with the rear guard, and then
fell in a swoon across the tender.

"The rear guard, a plucky young fellow of about six-and-twenty, twigging
the situation, came, as we all know, along the footb