d by.

To be sure it was only a dream, he said to himself, intensified by the
roar of the approaching train; and yet he could sleep no more that
night. Try as he would, he could not forget it; and soon he realized
that a growing desire to travel was coming upon him. In two or three
days' time this desire had become irresistible. He boarded the midnight
train and took a ride. But this did not cure him. In fact, the more he
travelled the more he wanted to travel. Soon after this he discovered
that he had acquired another habit. He wanted to stop the train. Against
these inclinations he had struggled, but to no purpose. Once, when he
felt that he must take a trip, he undressed and went to bed. He fell
asleep, and slept soundly until he heard the whistle of the midnight
train. Instantly he was out of bed, and by the time they had changed
engines he was at the station ready to go.

The mania for stopping trains had been equally irresistible. He would
bite his lips, his fingers, but he would also stop the train.

The moment the mischief (for such it was, in nearly every instance) was
done, he would suffer greatly in dread of being found out. But to-night,
as on the occasion of the daylight stop in the canon, he had no warning,
no opportunity to check himself, nor any desire to do so. In each
instance he had heard, dozing in the day-coach and sleeping soundly in
his berth, the voice cry: "John! John!" and instantly his brain was
ablaze with the light of burning wreckage. In the canon he had only
felt, indefinitely, the danger ahead; but to-night he saw the bridge
swept away, and the dark gorge that yawned in front of them. Instantly
upon hearing the cry that woke him, he saw it all.

"When I realized that the train was still moving, that my first effort
to stop had failed, I flung these strong men from me with the greatest
ease. I'm sure I should have burst those steel bands that bound my
wrists if it had been necessary.

"Thank God it's all over. I feel now that I am cured,--that I can settle
down contented."

The man drew a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead,
keeping his face to the window for a long time.

* * * * *

When the conductor went forward, he found that it was as the porter had
pictured. The high bridge had been carried away by a water-spout; and on
the edge of the opening the engine trembled, her pilot pointing out
over the black abyss.

McNally, having d