I had nothing to meet for
more than thirty miles, and there was nothing behind me; so I stopped,
turned the headlight up, and hung my white signal lamps down below the
buffer-beams each side of the pilot--this to enable me to see the ends
of the ties and the ditch.
Billy Howell, my fireman, and a good one, hastily went over the
boiler-jacket with signal oil, to prevent rust; we donned our gum coats;
I dropped a little oil on the "Mary Ann's" gudgeon's, and we proceeded
on our way without a word. On these big consolidators you cannot see
well ahead, past the big boiler, from the cab, and I always ran with my
head out of the side window. Both of us took this position now, standing
up ready for anything; but we bowled safely along for one mile--two
miles, through the awful hush. Then, as sudden as a flash of light,
"boom!" went a peal of thunder as sharp and clear as a signal gun.
There was a flash of light along the rails, the surface of the desert
seemed to break out here and there with little fitful jets of
greenish-blue flame, and from every side came the answering reports from
the batteries of heaven, like sister gunboats answering a salute.
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