“Maybe,” suggested Alfy, “maybe we were struck with lightning. Do you think so, Aunt Betty?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I can’t understand where the train hands can be. They should be here to tell us what has happened.”
“Do you suppose we have struck another train?” questioned Dorothy.
“Oh,” groaned Ruth. “I wish we could have some lights. It’s so dark I am afraid something will happen, and maybe some one will be killed.”
“Hush, child,” remarked Mr. Ludlow. “Just be thankful things are no worse than they are, that we are all safe alive and none of us are hurt.”
Ruth subsided to silence and sobbed beneath her breath. Just then, George, the old negro porter, broke in on the excited party and endeavored to tell what was the matter.
“Lord o’ Mercy, massa!” he exclaimed. “De train am wrecked. The ingin and one ob de baggage cars did fall off these track, plump, splash, right in de water.”
“That’s what the crash and splash and jerk was that we felt. The water was so high that it probably came up on the tracks here, and the engine and baggage car jumped the weakened trestle into the water. I wonder how it was it didn’t pull the rest of the train into the water also,” said Mr. Ludlow.
Just then the conductor and a brakeman passing from the next car through their own explained what had occurred to Mr. Ludlow and the other interested listeners.
First lighting the gas lamps to dispel the semi-darkness, the conductor said, “Sir, you see the lightning struck the train right between the first passenger car and the baggage, severing the connection, and leaving the engine and baggage car free to go ahead. They did, and running a little farther ahead it jumped the track, but no one was hurt. The shock somehow set the brakes, and brought the remaining cars to a stop. It’s lucky we held to the tracks, sir, it is indeed.”