Sao Paulo 313 



people who were gathered about the stations, where 

 now and then we stopped; many of them were negroes, 

 or half-breed Indians. All at once I was startled by a 

 terrific noise under my compartment. There was a 

 rapid succession of thundering blows, and crashing, 

 tearing sounds. I quickly turned on the electric light, 

 and pulled the cord which conveys the danger-signal 

 forward to the engine. The train stopped. Men came 

 running back. I told them that underneath the car 

 something had gone wrong. They lowered their lan- 

 terns and made an inspection. After a hurried con- 

 sultation, one of them ran forward to the engine, and 

 came back with a lot of tools. Then they crawled 

 under the car and there was hammering and pound- 

 ing, resulting finally in their dragging forth a large 

 iron tank, which it appeared had broken loose from 

 its fastenings behind, and had been dragging along, 

 hitting and hammering the ties as we flew over the 

 track. The offending tank was rolled to one side, the 

 men disappeared, and the train went on. I was now 

 wide awake. 



I lay and watched the dusky landscape, as it seemed 

 to rush by in the night, the dark groves, the palm- 

 trees, the open fields in which cattle were grazing, the 

 cottages and farmhouses gleaming white in the moon- 

 light, the distant hills which presently grew nearer, and 

 bolder, and blacker. The train began to wind down 

 into deep dark ravines, where I caught glimpses of the 

 moonlight glittering upon the mirror of quiet pools, or 

 scintillating from the confused waves of swiftly flowing 

 rapids. Toward morning when the flush of dawn 

 already began to creep over the sky, I fell into an 

 uneasy sleep. I was roused by the porter coming to 

 tender me a cup of coffee. The bright sunlight was 



