72 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



said was dead, and we covered him over with 

 dust and let him lie till the damp was drawn 

 out of him, and he 's walkin' round with the best 

 of us to-day. The damp was in them, that 

 was all, and the doctors did not know how to 

 draw it out." 



The man's deep voice was full of mournful 

 feeling, the darkness added pathos to his story, 

 and the pump with its never-ending beat seemed 

 to bear witness to all he said. More than an 

 hour had passed, and still we sat and waited ; 

 but the end was near. The engineer passed, 

 and gave a word of cheer. Then the conductor 

 climbed in beside us, and we were off. It might 

 have been down the bottomless pit's own mouth 

 that we were tearing, for all that eye or ear could 

 tell. Forest hemmed us in, and intense dark- 

 ness hung over us. Occasionally, when coal 

 was hurled into the fire, a spasm of red light 

 passed over the whizzing gloom outside ; but it 

 only made our eyeballs weary, for we could dis- 

 tinguish nothing. Perhaps we went a mile a 

 minute ; perhaps not. Freight cars have no 

 tender springs, yet the motion was not especially 

 uncomfortable until we began to slow up on 

 nearing Parrsboro. Then dislocation was threat- 

 ened; but a moment later we were using our 

 trunk as a step to dismount on, and saying a 

 cheerful good-night to our companions. 



