News from the Duchy | Page 3

maybe blawed 'ee a kiss--that bein' properer to the occasion,
come to think."
Joby paused, drew the back of a hand across his laughter-moistened
eyes, and pulled himself together, steadying his voice for the story.
"I'll tell 'ee what happened, from the beginnin'. A gang of us had been
sent down, two days before, to Treba meadow, to repair the culvert
there. Soon as we started to work we found the whole masonry fairly
rotten, and spent the first afternoon (that was Monday) underpinnin',
while I traced out the extent o' the damage. The farther I went, the
worse I found it; the main mischief bein' a leak about midway in the
culvert, on the down side; whereby the water, perc'latin' through, was
unpackin' the soil, not only behind the masonry of the culvert, but right
away down for twenty yards and more behind the stone-facing where
the line runs alongside the pool. All this we were forced to take down,
shorein' as we went, till we cut back pretty close to the rails. The job,
you see, had turned out more serious than reported; and havin' no one
to consult, I kept the men at it.
"By Wednesday noon we had cut back so far as we needed, shorein'
very careful as we went, and the men workin' away cheerful, with the
footboards of the expresses whizzin' by close over their heads, so's it
felt like havin' your hair brushed by machinery. By the time we
knocked off for dinner I felt pretty easy in mind, knowin' we'd broke
the back o' the job.
"Well, we touched pipe and started again. Bein' so close to the line I'd
posted a fella with a flag--Bill Martin it was--to keep a look out for the
down-trains; an' about three o'clock or a little after he whistled one

comin'. I happened to be in the culvert at the time, but stepped out an'
back across the brook, just to fling an eye along the embankment to see
that all was clear. Clear it was, an' therefore it surprised me a bit, as the
train hove in sight around the curve, to see that she had her brakes on,
hard, and was slowin' down to stop. My first thought was that Bill
Martin must have taken some scare an' showed her the red flag. But
that was a mistake; besides she must have started the brakes before
openin' sight on Bill."
"Then why on earth was she pulling up?" I asked. "It couldn't be
signals."
"There ain't no signal within a mile of Treba meadow, up or down. She
was stoppin' because--but just you let me tell it in my own way. Along
she came, draggin' hard on her brakes an' whistlin'. I knew her for an
excursion, and as she passed I sized it up for a big school-treat. There
was five coaches, mostly packed with children, an' on one o' the
coaches was a board--'Exeter to Penzance.' The four front coaches had
corridors, the tail one just ord'nary compartments.
"Well, she dragged past us to dead-slow, an' came to a standstill with
her tail coach about thirty yards beyond where I stood, and, as you
might say, with its footboard right overhangin' the pool. You mayn't
remember it, but the line just there curves pretty sharp to the right, and
when she pulled up, the tail coach pretty well hid the rest o' the train
from us. Five or six men, hearin' the brakes, had followed me out of the
culvert and stood by me, wonderin' why the stoppage was. The rest
were dotted about along the slope of th' embankment. And then the
curiousest thing happened--about the curiousest thing I seen in all my
years on the line. A door of the tail coach opened and a man stepped
out. He didn't jump out, you understand, nor fling hisself out; he just
stepped out into air, and with that his arms and legs cast themselves
anyways an' he went down sprawlin' into the pool. It's easy to say we
ought t' have run then an' there an' rescued him; but for the moment it
stuck us up starin' an',--Wait a bit! You han't heard the end.
"I hadn't fairly caught my breath, before another man stepped out! He
put his foot down upon nothing, same as the first, overbalanced just the

same, and shot after him base-over-top into the water.
"Close 'pon the second man's heels appeared a third. . . . Yes, sir, I
know now what a woman feels like when she's goin' to have the
scritches. 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