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.

Mrs. Thornton sank to her knees in an attitude of prayer, her head
dropped to her breast. The mother that had fainted roused a little and
called for her child.

The passengers rushed back and forth in a perfect frenzy, shouting, "The
baby! the baby!" Women cried and begged and implored some one to save it;
but it was all over before any one could act or before the Englishman
realized that it was his child that was in danger. The engines had
telescoped. The freight was derailed and the first three cars completely
demolished. The crew had all jumped and were uninjured, except the
fireman, who had a badly-broken leg and some bruises. Two men came around
the end of the Pullman with a boy supported between them. His head hung
limp and the blood trickled slowly from nasty cuts on his head and face.
Following them came the brakeman with a very frightened but unharmed
baby, wrapped in an overcoat. Every one made a rush for the little group.
The Englishman was first in line. His eyes opened wide and his cigar fell
from his lips. "By Jove, Chauncey!" he exclaimed, "they came near getting
you that time," then began to cry like a child.

The danger was past. There was no one killed, and only a few injured.
Several people were cut by broken glass and bruised by bumps. The fireman
of the freight had broken his leg and cut his shoulder badly in his jump.
Willis had reached the opposite platform, with the baby in his arms, just
as the trains collided. The jar had thrown him from his feet and broken
the glass in the door behind