to convey the least idea of the effects produced by collisions at high rates of speed.”
I inquired had he ever been in any accident of the kind, and he replied:
“Once; but the disaster was of a somewhat unusual character; if you feel indisposed to renew your nap perhaps you might like to hear the story.”
Further sleep was out of the question and I begged him to proceed, when he forthwith told me the following facts.
“I must premise then,” he began, “that though now a tolerably prosperous and well-to-do person, I did not always occupy my present position. At this moment I am one of the directors of the railway on which we are travelling, but I commenced life considerably lower down the social ladder. My father was an extremely clever and capable artisan, who possessed besides ability, considerable prudence and no small share of ambition.
“With such qualities it was only natural that he should rise in life; and he did so. Before I was sixteen years of age he held a lucrative and responsible position in the locomotive department on one of the great north country lines, and had he lived I think he might have made himself a name in the world. I was his only son, and he gave me a good education, deeply tinged with a mechanical colouring, in the hope that I should improve on his success. In this hope, if he were alive, he would not, perhaps, be altogether disappointed; but, although I have no reason to complain of want of present prosperity and social position, it is none the less true that the spare hours and holidays of my school life were spent chiefly among workshops, mechanics, and engine drivers. In those young days I had a passion for the locomotive, and my boyish ambition was to become a master of all the mysteries and duties connected therewith. Thus I was for ever loafing about the engine-house and getting an occasional trip with good-natured drivers more ready to please an inquiring youngster than careful to obey the company’s regulations. In this way I early gained a tolerably complete insight into the management of the locomotive, and being a shrewd self confident lad, soon acquired a profound belief in my capacity for discharging all the duties of a driver. I had, besides, an inseparable companion named Mark Hibberd, whose father followed the calling I thought I should so much adorn, and who delighted equally with me in pottering about among the engines and men, or riding short distances whenever the opportunity occurred. The elder Hibberd was an extremely daring and clever driver, a first-rate workman; but unfortunately like too many of our very best artizans, given to occasional fits of drunkenness. This peculiarity had got him into trouble once or twice before the time of which I am speaking, but as on each occasion his escapades had been productive of no actual harm, and he was in other respects a very valuable man, he was retained but cautioned. Mark was quite as great a proficient as myself in knowledge of the craft, and the dearest wish of both was to