“The doctor looked up from Roger’s face which he had been studying.”
“‘Let us go down to the wreck and try to discover them dead or alive,’ he said. I will call one of the fathers to watch beside your brother. By the way, I do not know your name. I would like to make a memorandum of this case, and submit it to our medical journal.’”
“Williams,” I replied, without a moment’s hesitation. “Andrew Williams. My brother’s name is Roger.”
“‘Thank you, sir,’ he said, taking a small book from his pocket and jotting down what I had told him. ‘This case will be noted and watched with a great deal of interest. Now come, we will search for your friends. Pray God they may be alive and well.’”
CHAPTER IX.
“We descended into the narrow pass where lay in a disordered heap the great engine, its mighty breath stilled forever; its ponderous wheels bent and twisted as though made of fine wire, while a huge bowlder of granite lying across the track, told how the accident had occurred. It had been loosened from its bed far up the mountain side, and the course it had taken could be plainly discerned by the broken trees, and the freshly disturbed earth left in its track.
“A torrent of water swelled by the heavy rains of the night before into an angry turbulent stream, rushed down the mountain and away across the track, as if bent upon an evil mission instigated by some wild spirit of the forest.
“The grandeur of the scene impressed me. For a moment I seemed to realize how small an atom was my human frame compared to all these things made by a wise ruler to complete the universe. With one sweep of His omnipotent hand He could slay the world.
“Then why should I undertake with my baby brain, to perfect a scheme, when by merely laying one finger upon it He could bring ruin and disgrace to me. Only for a moment had I these thoughts, then with an impatient gesture I brushed my forehead as if by so doing I could cast all doubt and fear to the winds, and I said: Why hesitate? I have gone too far now to turn back. It is sink or swim with me. Let fate do its work.
“I had purposely turned in another direction from where I knew lay the body of John Saxon and that of his beautiful bride. In a few moments I heard the doctor’s voice calling me. I turned slowly. Even now, that I had determined nothing should stop me from doing my will, the thought of recognizing these people as friends, who were total strangers, and who could not rise to denounce me, made a chilly uncomfortable feeling creep over me. What if they too should come to life like Roger, and then with a nervous laugh at my idiotic thoughts, I strode toward where the doctor was kneeling, and bent over the figure which he had reverently uncovered. It is she, I said. How beautiful she looks even in death. I unclasped the chain from about her neck and opened the locket. See, I cried, this is John, her husband. He, too, is dead, or else he would have found her ere this. Let us continue our search. With a prayer to the Holy Virgin Mary the doctor covered the sweet face with its staring eyes, and soon he found the shapeless trunk and began searching the pockets. I busied myself over the body of a man some distance away, until I heard an exclamation from the doctor. ‘I have found him,’ he cried. ‘Poor man! Poor girl! It is as you have stated. They were only just married.’ He showed the papers. ‘What will you do?’ he asked. I will take their bodies home, I replied. It is all I can do.”