"When the prisoner bit my thumb off, he held it in his mouth; he
pushed his head through the glass, spat the thumb into his hand
and flung it out through the window. I then stood up and put my
left hand in my pocket, took out my purse and cried out: 'If it
is money you want take all I have.' He made a grab at the purse
and flung it through the window, on the same side as the thumb
was thrown out. From this act I inferred that I was struggling
with a maniac. I retreated to the other end of the compartment,
holding the other man between me and the prisoner, but he passed
the other man by jumping over the seat and again got hold of me.
Then he forced his head through the other window, breaking the
glass, and, loosing me for a moment, with his fists smashed the
remaining glass in the window. Addressing me he said: 'You ----,
you will have to go over;' at the same time he flung both his
arms around my waist. I put my leg behind his and threw him on
his back. I called upon the other man to help me and he did so.
"We held him down for some time, but he overpowered us and flung
us back some distance. He then laid hold of my travelling rug
and threw it through the window. Laying his hand on the bottom
of the window he cried out, 'Here goes,' and made a leap through
the window. I and the other man instantly laid hold of his legs
as he was falling over. I got my four fingers into his right
shoe, and, his father assisting me, we held him through the
window, hanging head downward for about half a mile. I then
fainted, and as I was losing my hold on his heels I have some
faint recollection that the prisoner's father lost his hold at
the same time, and I can't say what happened afterward. As I was
coming to myself the train was stopping, and I heard the other
man say, 'Oh, my son, my son.' When the train stopped I walked
from the carriage to the station, and Dr. Robinson, who was sent
for, came in about an hour and amputated my thumb further back."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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