|IT is necessary now for us to relate the extraordinary events which
happened on the railway. At this part of the track, which is double,
there were two stations about four miles apart, through which the
express trains ran quite frequently. In the evening after Théophraste
had been speaking to Mme. Petito, the express train had passed through
the first station, and the station master was waiting for the signal
from the second station, when suddenly a message came through saying
that the train had not arrived yet. The station master could not
understand it. The train had passed through his station fifteen minutes
before, and would not have taken all that time to go the short distance
to the other station. He went out and looked up the track. There was no
sign of the train, and all was quiet. Again the signal came back, and
the second station master said that he would walk along the track to see
if he could find the cause of the delay. The first man said he would
do the same, and they both started running down the track, followed by
other men in the stations. Although it was broad daylight, nothing could
be seen of the train, and the two parties met on the track. The first
station master was greatly agitated, and wrung his hands in despair. He
knew the train had passed through his station. He was sure of it. The
report of his assistant confirmed it. Where could it have disappeared
to? The excitement and fear was too much for him, and without any
warning he fell dead at their feet with heart failure.
The men ran hither, thither, on both sides of the tracks, but no sign
of the train was there. At last they gave up the search, and placing the
dead body of the station master on a rough bier of sticks and leaves,
they made their way sadly back to the station.
They had not gone far when one of the party cried out: “Look ahead,
there’s the train!”
And there, a few yards outside the station, on the very track they had
traveled on, was a wagon and baggage car of the disappeared train!
They were all very astonished, and were running, shouting, toward the
train, when they suddenly stopped. Peering out of the doors of the train
was a peculiar head. It had no ears, and appeared as though the door had
been shut violently, catching the man’s neck. They called to him as
soon as they saw him, but he did not answer. The head just swayed from
one side to the other, rocked by the wind, which was blowing in great
gusts. Upon the head was curly hair, and the cravat around the white
neck was untied, floating in the wind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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