moment. The passenger whistle blew in long, shrill tones, while the
brakeman hurried up the hill in the direction of the expected freight to
give the danger signal. Hardly had he reached the top when there came
the faint sound of a whistle. He heard the three blasts. The train had
left Eastonville! Could he save a wreck? Lantern in hand, he hurried down
the track as fast as he could with the wind and rain beating him back.
Suddenly a black form loomed up in the mist ahead. Full blast she came,
the black smoke from her stack running ahead as if to coax her on to
greater speed. The brakeman waved his red lantern frantically in the air.
There was a screeching sound of brake-shoes on the wheels, a long, shrill
whistle, and the train sped past him, a misty dull serpent in the storm.
He turned and followed as fast as he could.

Women with disheveled hair stood and wrung their hands. Men cursed and
swore as they ran back and forth about the derailed passenger. The wind
lulled for a second, and in the momentary silence there came the
half-smothered cry of a little child from one direction, answered from
somewhere in the fog by the rushing of wheels and the faint, weird sigh
of a whistle.

Willis's head went up, his eyes flashed, his muscles tightened; then,
turning to his mother, he cried, "The baby!" and in an instant was gone.
It all happened so quickly there was no time for Mrs. Thornton to think.
She saw Willis hasten away and enter the front door of the car they had
been occupying; at the same instant she became aware of the approaching
train. There was a shrill, angry hiss, and the freight swung into the cut
with a terrible roar, then came a crashing of glass and breaking of
timbers. The engineer had opened the whistle valve with such a jerk that
it had stuck fast, and the whistle did its utmost. It was a doleful
sound, pulsating its strange, sharp cry into the storm.