never left off calling to him. I
put this arm before my eyes, not to see, and I waved this arm to the
last; but it was no use."

* * * * *

Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its curious
circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing it, point out the
coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, not only the
words which the unfortunate Signal-man had repeated to me as haunting
him, but also the words which I myself--not he--had attached, and that
only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he had imitated.

NO. 2 BRANCH LINE
THE ENGINE-DRIVER

"Altogether? Well. Altogether, since 1841, I've killed seven men and
boys. It ain't many in all those years."

These startling words he uttered in a serious tone as he leaned against
the Station-wall. He was a thick-set, ruddy-faced man, with coal-black
eyes, the whites of which were not white, but a brownish-yellow, and
apparently scarred and seamed, as if they had been operated upon. They
were eyes that had worked hard in looking through wind and weather. He
was dressed in a short black pea-jacket and grimy white canvas trousers,
and wore on his head a flat black cap. There was no sign of levity in
his face. His look was serious even to sadness, and there was an air of
responsibility about his whole bearing which assured me that he spoke in
earnest.

"Yes, sir, I have been for five-and-twenty years a Locomotive
Engine-driver; and in all that time, I've only killed seven men and boys.
There's not many of my mates as can say as much for themselves.
Steadiness, sir--steadiness and keeping your eyes open, is what does it.
When I say seven men and boys, I mean my mates--stokers, porters, and so
forth. I don't count passengers."

How did he become an engine-driver?

"My father," he said, "was a wheelwright in a small way, and lived in a
little cottage by the side of the railway which runs betwixt Leeds and
Selby. It was the second railway laid down in the kingdom, the second
after the Liverpool and Manchester, where Mr. Huskisson was killed, as
you may have heard on, sir. When the trains rushed by, we young 'uns
used to run out to look at 'em, and hooray. I noticed the driver turning
handles, and making it go, and I thought to myself it would be a fine
thing to be a engine-driver, and have the control of a wonderful machine
like that. Before the railway, the driver of the mail-c