I'd have asked someone to pinch me in the fleshy part o'
the leg, to make sure I was alive an' awake, but the power o' speech
was taken from us. We just stuck an' stared.
"What beat everything was the behaviour of the train, so to say.
There it stood, like as if it'd pulled up alongside the pool for the
very purpose to unload these unfort'nit' men; an' yet takin' no
notice whatever. Not a sign o' the guard--not a head poked out
anywheres in the line o' windows--only the sun shinin', an' the steam
escapin', an' out o' the rear compartment this procession droppin'
out an' high-divin' one after another.
"Eight of 'em! Eight, as I am a truth-speakin' man--but there! you
saw 'em with your own eyes. Eight! and the last of the eight scarce
in the water afore the engine toots her whistle an' the train starts
on again, round the curve an' out o' sight.
"She didn' leave us no time to doubt, neither, for there the poor
fellas were, splashin' an' blowin', some of 'em bleatin' for help,
an' gurglin', an' for aught we know drownin' in three-to-four feet o'
water. So we pulled ourselves together an' ran to give 'em first
aid.
"It didn' take us long to haul the whole lot out and ashore; and, as
Providence would have it, not a bone broken in the party.
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