The Iron Horse by Robert Michael Ballantyne (the best e book reader TXT) 📖

may easily be believed, seeing that it had to be formed under streets whose foundations were unavoidably shaken, and amongst an infinite ramification of gas and water-pipes and sewers whose separate action had to be maintained intact while the process of construction was going on. Some of the stations are most ingeniously lighted from the streets above by bright reflecting tile-work, while others, too deep for such a method, or too much overtopped with buildings to admit of it, are lit perpetually with gas. The whole of the works are a singular instance of engineering skill, reflecting great credit on Mr Fowler, the engineer-in-chief. Despite its great length of tunnelling the line is perfectly dry throughout.

At first fears were entertained that human beings could not with safety travel through such tunnels as were here formed, but experience has proved those fears, like many others, to have been groundless, and a very thorough analysis of the atmosphere of the line in all circumstances, and by the most competent men of the day, has demonstrated that the air of the Metropolitan railway is not injurious to health. The excellent general health of the employes also affords additional and conclusive testimony to this fact even although it is unquestionably true that there is at times a somewhat sulphurous smell there.

This thorough ventilation, of course, could only have been achieved by ingenious arrangements and a peculiar construction of the engines, whereby the waste steam and fumes of the furnaces should be prevented from emitting their foul and sulphurous odours. The carriages are brilliantly lighted with gas, contained in long india-rubber bags on their roofs, and the motion of the trains is much gentler than that of ordinary railways, although they travel at the rate of from fifteen to twenty miles an hour, including stoppages,--a rate, be it observed, which could not have been ventured on at all but for the thorough and effective system of telegraphic and semaphore signalling employed, to indicate from station to station the exact state of the line--as to trains--at all times. On the whole the Metropolitan Railway has proved one of the most useful and successful undertakings of modern times. See Note 3 at the end of the chapter.

In reference to foreign railways, we have only space to say that there are works as grand, and as worthy of note, as any of which we can boast; and it is with much regret that we feel constrained to do no more than point to such magnificent undertakings as the _Mont Cenis_ Railway, which ascends and tunnels through the Alps; and that stupendous line, the Union Pacific Railroad, 3000 miles in length, formed by the daring and enterprising Americans, by means of which the prairies and the Rocky Mountains are made of no account and New York is brought within seven days of San Francisco! The engineering works on the Sommering Railway, between Vienna and Trieste; the mighty Victoria Tubular Bridge at Montreal; the railway bridge over Niagara; the difficulties encountered and overcome in India; the bold achievements of railway engineers amid the dizzy heights and solitudes of the Andes--all these subjects must be passed over in silence, else our readers will, we fear, come to the conclusion that we have lost command of the Iron Horse altogether, allowed him to take the bit in his teeth and fairly run away.

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Note 1. Many readers may find it difficult to form an adequate conception of such a vast number as 307 millions. It may help one to some idea of it to know that, if a man were to devote himself to count it, one by one,--sitting down after breakfast counting at the rate of one every moment, and working without intermission for eight hours every day, excepting Sundays,--he would not conclude his task until the thirty-fifth year.

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Note 2. We would refer them particularly to Messrs. W. and R. Chambers' comprehensive and popularly written work on "Railways, Steamer, and Telegraphs;" Money's "Rambles on Railways," which bristles with figures and swarms with anecdote; "Stokers and Pokers," by Sir Francis Head, a capital and very full work, though somewhat old; W.B. Adams' "Roads and Rails," and Bremrer's "Industries of Scotland."

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Note 3. We had intended to devote much larger space to this most interesting line, but the nature of our book forbids it. We quit the subject regretfully; referring the reader, who may desire to know more, to an able notice of the Metropolitan Railway in "The Shops and Companies of London," edited by Henry Mayhew.


CHAPTER SEVEN.


LITTLE GERTIE COMES OUT IN A NEW LIGHT, AND BOB RECEIVES GOOD NEWS.

Poor little earnest curly-haired Gertie had been so thoroughly reared in the midst of crashing sounds and dire alarms without any mischance resulting, that she had come to feel at last as if the idea of danger or disaster were a mere fiction. It was therefore a new and terrible shock which she received, when she saw her father carried to his cottage by four railway porters and tenderly laid in his bed; and it went to her heart with an unaccountable thrill when she heard her father's usually loud hearty voice say, in soft, womanly tones, "Thank 'ee, lads; thank 'ee. I'll be all right soon, please God. Good-night and thank 'ee kindly."

"Good-night--good-night, Jack," they replied in various tones of cheeriness; for these hard-muscled men had soft hearts, and although they entertained fears for their friend, they were anxious, by the hearty tones of their voices, to keep up his spirits.

"You mustn't take on like that, Missis," whispered one of them as they were leaving the cottage door; "the doctor said for sartin that there warn't no bones broken, and 'e didn't think there was nothink internal."

"It ain't that I'm afear'd of," whimpered poor Mrs Marrot, "but it does go to my 'art so, to 'ear my John speak in that voice. I never 'ear'd him do it except once before, when he was very low with fever, an' thought himself a-dyin'."

"But 'e ain't agoin' to die _this_ time," returned the kindly porter; "so cheer up, Missis. Good-night."

Mrs Marrot returned to the room where her husband lay, evidently suffering severe pain, for he was very pale and his lips were compressed. He was anxious not to alarm Gertie and Loo who stood at the bedside. The former could not speak, and the blood had so completely fled from her face and her small tightly-clasped hands that she resembled a creature of wax.

"Can I do nothing to relieve the pain, dear father?" said Loo, as she wiped the perspiration from his brow.

"Nothin', nothin', dear lass," said John, with some of his wonted heartiness, "except git me a cup o' tea. Mayhap that'll do me good; but the doctor'll be here soon, and he'll put me all to rights in no time."

The idea of a cup of tea was a deep device on the part of John, who meant thereby to give Loo some active work to do and thus take her attention off himself.

"And don't you be uneasy, Molly," he added, turning to his wife, "it ain't a bad hurt, I'm told, an' it ain't hard for a man to suffer a bit o' pain now an' agin when it's the Lord's will. Come, that's the doctor's knock. Don't keep him waitin'. I knew he'd be here soon, 'cause Mr Able said he'd send him without delay."

A prolonged and somewhat painful examination of John's injuries ensued, during which time little Gertie, with clasped hands, parted lips, and eager eyes, watched the doctor's countenance intently. After it was over, the doctor turned to Mrs Marrot, and said--

"I'm happy to tell you, that your husband's injuries, although severe and painful, are not serious. No bones are broken, but he has been severely bruised, and will require careful nursing for some time--and," he added, turning with a smile to the patient, "no more rushing about the country at sixty miles an hour for several weeks to come."

Little Gertie began to breathe freely again. Her hands unclasped, and the colour came slowly back, as she crept quietly to the bedside, and, taking her father's large horny hand, laid her cheek softly upon it.

"Are you easier _now_, daddy?" she asked.

"Ay, much easier, God bless you, Gertie. The doctor has made things much more comfortable. They've got a wonderful knack o' puttin' things right--these doctors have. W'y, it minds me o' my ingine after a longish run; she looks dirty an' all out o' sorts; but w'en I gits her into the shed, and gives her an overhaul, you'd scarce know 'er again."

At this moment baby Marrot who had been sleeping when his father was brought in, became suddenly conscious of internal vacuity, and forthwith set up a lusty howl, whereupon Mrs Marrot pounced upon and throttled him--to some extent.

"Don't stop him, Molly, my dear; you--"

The remainder of the sentence was drowned by the night express which rushed past, joining baby Marrot in a yell, as the latter freed his throat from his mother's grip.

"Don't stop him, Molly," repeated John; "you don't suppose that after drivin' a locomotive for eight years I'm agoin' to be disturbed by the small pipe of our own youngster. Let him yell, Molly; it does him good, and it don't do me no harm."

It was now arranged that Gertie was to be head nurse on this trying occasion--not that the appointment was considered appropriate, but it was unavoidable, seeing that Gertie wanted it intensely, and her father was pleased to have it so.

Gertie had never before been called upon to do anything in the nursing way more serious than to look after baby when he had eaten too much or scalded himself--nevertheless, the way in which she went about her nursing would have done credit to an hospital training. She evidently possessed a natural aptitude for the work, and went about it with a sense of the importance of the trust that was quite charming. She was at that tender age when such work becomes barely possible, and the performance of it seems quite miraculous! Her father gazed at her in bewilderment while she went about gravely smoothing his pillow and tucking in corners of blankets, and bringing cups, and tumblers, and spoons, and handkerchiefs, and sundry other articles, to a chair at his bedside, so as to be within reach of his hand. Molly and Loo, besides being highly interested, were intensely amused. It is a matter of dispute even to this day whether baby did not perceive the marvellous aptitude of Gertie, for he continued for a prolonged period to gaze at her as if in solemn wonder. Mrs Marrot declared baby's gaze to be one of admiration, but John held that it was owing to the state of exhaustion that resulted from an unusually long fit of yelling. While he stared thus, Gertie, having completed a number of little operations and put the finishing touches or _pats_ to them, became suddenly aware that every one was laughing quietly.

"What is it?" she asked, relaxing the severity of her brow and brightening up.

They all laughed still more at this, and Gertie, looking round for an explanation, encountered baby's glaring eyes, whereupon, supposing that she had found out the cause, she laughed too. But she quickly dismissed her levity and recurred to her work with