just before us," cried out one of the guard. But
even as he spoke, the buildings were at hand. A sickening sensation
settled upon my heart, for I supposed that we were now gone. The houses
flew by like lightning. I knew if the officers here had turned the switch
as usual, we should be hurled into eternity in one fearful crash. I saw a
flash,--it was another engine,--I closed my eyes; but still we thundered
on! The officers had seen our speed, and knowing that we would not be able
to stop, in that distance, they had changed the switch, so that we went
forward.

17. But there was sure death ahead, if we did not stop. Only fifteen miles
from us was the town of Schwetz, on the Vistula; and at the rate we were
going we should be there in a few minutes, for each minute carried us over
a mile. The shrieks of the passengers now rose above the crash of the
rails, and more terrific than all else arose the demoniac yells of the mad
engineer.

"Merciful heavens!" gasped the guardsman, "there's not a moment to lose;
Schwetz is close. But hold," he added; "let's shoot him."

18. At that moment a tall, stout German student came over the platform
where we stood, and saw that the mad-man had his heavy pistol aimed at us.
He grasped a huge stick of wood, and, with a steadiness of nerve which I
could not have commanded, he hurled it with such force and precision that
he knocked the pistol from the maniac's hand. I saw the movement, and on
the instant that the pistol fell, I sprang forward, and the German
followed me. I grasped the man by the arm; but I should have been nothing
in his mad power, had I been alone. He would have hurled me from the
platform, had not the student at that moment struck him upon the head with
a stick of wood, which he caught as he came over the tender.

19. Kroller settled down like a dead man, and on the next instant I shut
off the steam and opened the valve. As the free steam shrieked and howled
in its escape, the speed began to decrease, and in a few minutes more the
danger was passed. As I settled back, entirely overcome by the wild
emotions that had raged within me, we began to turn the river; and before
I was fairly recovered, the fireman had stopped the train in the station
house at Schwetz.

20. Martin Kroller, still insensible, was taken from the platform; and, as
we carried him to the guard room, one of the guard recognized him, and
told us that he had been there about two weeks before.

"He came