I have; and
now,--now I dream it very often. It was not half a
minute, you know, but it seemed a good long time. I said
nothing and they said nothing; only Bill just squeezed my
hand. And just as I knew we must be half over,--for I
could see by the star I was watching ahead that we
were not going up, but were falling again,--do you think
the rope by my side tightened quick, and the old bell on
the engine gave one savage bang, turned right over as far
as the catch would let it, and stuck where it turned!
Just that one sound, everything else was still; and then
she landed on the rails, perhaps seventy feet inside the
ravine, took the rails as true and sweet as you ever saw
a ship take the water, hardly touched them, you know,
skimmed--well, as I have seen a swallow skim on the sea;
the prettiest, well, the tenderest touch, Mr. Ingham,
that ever I did see! And I could just hear the
connecting rods tighten the least bit in the world behind
me, and we went right on.
"We just looked at each other in the faces, and we
could not speak; no, I do not believe we spoke for three
quarters of a minute. Then August said, `Was not that
grand? Will they let us do it always, Bill?' But we
could not talk then. Flanagan came back with the
tobacco, and I had just the wit to ask him why he had
been gone so long. Poor fellow! he was frightened enough
when we pulled up at Clayville, and he thought it was
Drums.
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