“I shouted to them to save themselves by some other means, as no boat could live in such a storm; and then, grasping the chain stays, hauled myself, hand over hand, to the top of the stack, which had not yet cooled, though the fires had been extinguished twenty minutes, and the spray was continually dashing over and around, causing jets of steam to emanate from every spot it touched on the black cylinder.
“I hung there for life, though it scorched my hands dreadfully; and at last I managed to lash myself fast by a bit of rope, which, providentially, I had found in my pocket. The boat sank no deeper. It had grounded on the bar, and I was temporarily safe.
“Then I looked amid the turmoil of waters for the engineer and his companion. Of them I could see nothing. Half a furlong to leeward tossed the boat, bottom upward. The unfortunate men had gone to the bottom.
“The ‘Silver Arrow’ rocked fearfully, and jarred and shocked me through every limb, as I hung lashed to the smoke-stack.
“I was fast being spent, when, the storm abating, a boat put out from shore, and without detailing the difficulty of getting aboard, suffice it to say that, half dead, I was rescued, and after a couple of day’s recuperation on shore, I got aboard a schooner bound up, and arriving at Puntsville, related what had happened.
“In a few days calm weather returned, the ‘Silver Arrow’ was raised, the mails were secured, intact, and I mentally resolved to give up steam-boating for a lengthy interval, at least, and measures were taken to recover the stolen railroad bonds through the city detectives.
“Finally it was rumoured that the bonds had been recovered from a city firm, who had purchased them two days after they were stolen; that the party who had sold them could not be found, but his arrest was very probable from the descriptive clues which the authorities had received from a member of the victimised firm.
“And now I became involved in a predicament equalling in unpleasantness that of the clinging to the smoke-stack of the sinking ‘Silver Arrow.’
“One day, about a week after the robbery, a gentleman called at the Puntsville Hotel and expressed a wish for a private interview, and when we were alone, produced a warrant for my arrest for mail robbery. Remonstrance was useless.
“He said it was a very unpleasant duty, but the law must be enforced, &c., and as the document was in proper form and legally made out, I could do nothing but accompany him.