“But I did not burst my bonds that night. The villains had taken good care of that. There I was in a most painful position, bound by the neck to one rail, and by the ankles to the other, my hands tied beneath me, and my body fastened to a sleeper.
“Oh, God! how I did struggle to free myself; how I sought to wrench away my legs; how I tugged at the cord which bound my wrists; and then, since I could not get them free, as I thought of the fearful death so soon to come upon me, how I strove to throttle myself with the rope that held my head to the rail!
“How I prayed that I might suffocate there as I lay! I have heard that men have died of terror, but I don’t believe it. If such a thing were possible I think I should have perished in those dreadful moments. But I did not. Oh, no! The murderers were to have their fullest revenge.
“And now, suddenly I grew strangely calm. I philosophised with myself. I said resignedly, that a man could die but once; and after all, what would it matter an hour hence?
“Besides, in reality, this was an instantaneous and almost painless end. But my wife and children! Oh, I would like to live for them. And could I not? I was not dead yet. If I could only move myself a few feet. Oh, so very few feet! Yet I could not stir.
“Now, a thought struck me. Could I not signal the train in some way, stop it one little yard, or foot, or inch before it passed over me? Alas, how? They would never hear my cries.
“They would never see me in the darkness of the night. No one would know until the morrow, and then I should be, alas! crushed, and mangled, and dead.
“But my lantern—where was that? I turned my head, and could see it a few feet away where I had dropped it. If I only had it on my breast I could draw up my pocket with my teeth, I thought, and somehow get a match from it, and so light the lantern.
“And in my insane terror I called out to it, and begged it to come nearer, and save my wretched life. You may smile at that, gentlemen, but human nature is weaker than you think, and I believe I am as good a man ordinarily as the most.
“But all this time the minutes were flying by like lightning. Horrible as that hour was to me, I could have wished it was all eternity.