Brown of Moukden: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War

by Herbert Strang

The Pressure-Gauge

Timber on the Track—Fuel and Water—The Station House—A Trap—Neck or Nothing—Screwing down the Valve—A Slip Carriage—Nearing the End—Kao-ling-tzü—Indiscreet Zeal—A Lady Passenger—Traffic Suspended

Jack glanced anxiously back along the line; his engine was jolting, bumping, up the incline at the rate of forty miles an hour; steam was escaping from the safety-valves; the gauge registered over 10 atmospheres, considerably above working pressure; yet to his impatience it seemed to be moving with exasperating slowness. Dust was whirling behind; through the cloud, five minutes after he started, he saw a puff of steam in the distance; the pursuing train was again under way. Turning to see if he could put on more steam, he was dismayed to find that the water was just disappearing in the gauge glass. In a few minutes—he could not tell how few—the water would be below the level of his fire-box crown, the fusible plug would drop, and the fire would be put out by the escaping steam. This was ominous indeed.

There were, he saw, two conditions in his favour: he had a start of nearly five minutes; and he could choose his own place to obstruct the pursuer. But the other conditions were all against him. He must needs stop for water, and at the present rate of consumption for fuel also; and whenever he passed a station it would be necessary to cut the telegraph wires. Moreover, on board the pursuing train there must be men skilled in repairing the line, or the chase could not have been resumed so promptly; and Jack could not expect to do more damage in a given time than could be remedied by expert hands in the same period. Worst of all, the pursuing engine was evidently more powerful than his; and though it was somewhat handicapped by its position at the wrong end of the train, yet an experienced driver can always get more work out of his engine than a tyro,—and Jack was making his trial trip!

He cudgelled his brains for some means of checking the pursuit without bringing his own train to a stand-still. He wished that he had thought to instruct his men when tearing up the rails to lift some of the sleepers into the train; these placed on the line would prove serious obstacles. It was too late to repine; he made up his mind not to lose the chance if it should occur again. While his thoughts were still on the matter, his eye caught the balks of timber used for fuel on this part of the line. The stock in the tender was much diminished; more fuel must soon be obtained; but surely one or two might be spared for the experiment. Without delay he sent Hi Lo to the back of the tender with an order to Wang Shih to carry two of the balks through the train and to drop them on the line from the communication door at the rear of the last carriage. In a few moments the command was carried out, but Wang Shih reported that owing to the high speed he had found it difficult to see what happened to the logs when they reached the ground. One, he thought, had remained on the inside rail; the other appeared to jump off. Narrowly watching the riband of steam from the pursuing train, Jack believed he detected a momentary diminution about the time when it should have reached the spot where the logs had been thrown out; but if there was a delay it was very brief, and a few minutes later the tail of the advancing train came into full view, the growing size of the carriage-end showing that it was making up on him.

Looking ahead with greater anxiety, Jack saw a station within a mile. This must be Pei-su-ho. He had already decided that to stop there would be absolutely necessary, and in a short colloquy with Wang Shih when he returned from throwing the logs on the track he had arranged what should be done. Immediately on the stoppage of the train twelve men were to engage the station staff and destroy the telegraphic instruments; ten were to tear up the rails behind the train, and, if possible, bring some sleepers on board; four were to cut the telegraph wire, and twenty to load wood from the station stock on to the nearest carriage. In the meanwhile he himself, with the assistance of the man acting as fireman and others riding on the engine, would take in a supply of water from the tank.

The train rattled into the station. In his anxiety Jack found that he had shut off steam too late; the engine ran some yards beyond the water-tower. As he had already found at Imien-po, it was not easy to the amateur to bring a train to a stand-still at a given spot. But although the greater part of the train had run beyond the platform, the Chunchuses, who were standing ready with the doors open, swung themselves out, and before the gaping officials were aware of what was happening they were disarmed and helpless. Not for the first time had Jack reason to be glad that his men were the pick of Ah Lum's band, and a standing proof of the efficacy of discipline with the Chinese.

While Jack was backing the engine to the tank the work of ripping up the track and demolishing the wire had already been begun, and a string of men were hauling timber into the nearest carriage. But before the supply of water was fully replenished Jack had to blow his whistle to recall the various parties; the pursuer was drawing perilously near. The train moved off before all the men were in their places; the last of them running along the platform and being helped in by his comrades. Up came the second train; again it had to halt before the gap, and the driver, being at the other end, was compelled for safety's sake to reduce speed earlier than he would have done had he been able to judge the distance more exactly. But this time the gap was shorter; the time required to restore the line would be correspondingly less. Yet Jack had gained one advantage; knowing that the enemy's water supply, like his own, must have run low, he had brought the station hose away with him, and he looked at it with grim satisfaction, lying coiled at the rear of the tender.

As Jack's engine, Alexander the Second, gained impetus and charged up the gradient towards the hills looming in the distance, it was followed by a dropping fire from the pursuing train: some of Lieutenant Potugin's men had climbed to the roof of the stationary carriages. Whether any of the bullets struck the train was doubtful; no harm was done; and in the excitement of the moment the idea of firing rifles seemed almost as childish as shooting at the moon. Nothing less than a siege-gun would have appeared formidable in the circumstances.

The brigands' last cutting of the line and the removal of the hose had evidently gained several minutes for the fugitive, for many miles had been covered before the smoke of the pursuer was again seen. With so considerable a start Jack felt it safe to pull up once more and try a device that had occurred to him. His engine was at the summit of a long descent where the line curved. Hitherto his track-breakers had forced up both the rails, but the curve was here so sharp that he thought he might save time by having only one rail lifted, hoping that the partial gap might not be seen by the enemy until it was too late to do more than check the train, which would in all probability be derailed. An alternative plan suggested itself, only to be dismissed. It was to remove the rail, and then replace it without the bolts. The pursuer would then rush on at full speed expecting no danger; the train would be hurled from the track, and probably all on board would be killed or injured. But even in the heat of the moment, and with the knowledge that if he were caught he could expect no mercy from the Russians, Jack could not bring himself to compass such wholesale destruction. "Play the game": the phrase of the school song stuck to him. His purpose would be amply served by the mere derailment of the train, the speed of which would no doubt be sufficiently checked, when the gap was descried, to avert fatal consequences.