“Oh, my God, the train!”
The locomotive arrived with a roar. The man 34 on the line tried to rise, but the sight of the approaching doom paralyzed him. Women shrieked and men stood rooted to the spot. No one saw the big form of Jim descend like a thunderbolt on the back of the terrified man. An instant later the engine passed over them....
Underneath the moving mass Jim’s fourteen stone of human tissue was pressed close to the form beneath him. He was scarcely conscious of taking the leap. His brain had yelled one distinct order to his active limbs: “Keep him down flat!” He had obeyed that subconsciously. For a second or so it was pure oblivion, and then he realized what had happened. If there should not be enough clearance?... Any considerable projection would mean....
But something happened which drove the specter of fear away. There came a sharp pain in his back. It grew to intense torture. A small, red-hot cinder from the engine was eating into his flesh. He wanted to raise his head, to put out his arm and remove this merciless thing. But Will prevailed. The pain grew less. The roar ceased. He realized that the train had stopped. 35 He could hear the excited murmur of voices. Everyone seemed to be talking at once.
“There’s another there—that big man. I tell you....”
“Mary, come away....”
“It went right over him. Oh, poor fellow!...”
“The big man was holding him down. They’re safe, I tell you.”
A quavering male voice—that of the guard—came down through the space between the platform and the footboard of the train.
“Hel-lo, down there!”