a cigar."

"I thank you; I never smoke."

"Ah! you are worse than a hot potato. But I am dying for a smoke; and, if
you will excuse me, I will go forward. I will see you again before we get
to New York."

Captain de Banyan, apparently entirely satisfied with himself, rose from
his seat, and sauntered gracefully forward to the door of the car,
through which he disappeared, leaving Lieutenant Somers busy in a vain
endeavor to crowd five weeks in between the 4th and the 20th of June. The
captain was certainly a pleasant and voluble person, and Somers had
enjoyed the interview; though he could not repress a rising curiosity to
see the bullet which had passed twice through the body of the valiant
soldier, and the medal of the Legion of Honor conferred upon him by his
imperial majesty the Emperor of France.

Some painful doubts in regard to the truth of Captain de Banyan's
remarkable experience were beginning to intrude themselves into his mind;
and it is quite probable that he would have been hurled into an unhappy
state of skepticism, if the train in which he was riding had not been
suddenly hurled down an embankment some twenty feet in height, where the
cars were piled up in shapeless wrecks, and human beings, full of life
and hope a moment before, were suddenly ushered into eternity, or maimed
and mangled for life.

CHAPTER II

THE SENATOR'S DAUGHTER

A scene terribly beyond the power of description was presented to the
gaze of Lieutenant Somers when he recovered his scattered senses. The car
had been literally wrenched to pieces, and the passengers were partially
buried beneath the fragments. Our traveler was stunned by the shock, and
made giddy by the wild vaulting of the car as it leaped down the
embankment to destruction. He was bruised and lacerated; but he was not
seriously injured. He did not make the mistake which many persons do
under such trying circumstances, of believing that they are killed; or,
if their senses belie this impression, that they shall die within a brief
period.

Lieutenant Somers was endowed with a remarkable degree of self-possession,
and never gave up anything as long as there was any chance of holding on.
He saw a great many stars not authenticated in any respectable catalogue
of celestial luminaries. His thoughts, and even his vitality, seemed to be
suspended for an instant; but the thoughts came back, and the stream of
life still flowed on, notwithstanding the rude assau