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47 - Beetle by Richard Marsh · Beetle

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  Speaker 1: The Beadle by Richard Marsh, Chapter forty seven, The Contents
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  Speaker 1: of the third Class Carriage. I moved to the stranger
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  Speaker 1: who was holding the lamp. He was in official uniform.
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  Speaker 1: Are you the guard of the twelve o'clock out from
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  Speaker 1: Saint Pancras? I am, where's your train? What's happened? As
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  Speaker 1: for where it is there? It is right in front
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  Speaker 1: of you, what's left of it? As to what's happened?
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  Speaker 1: Why we're wrecked? What do you mean you're wrecked? Some
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  Speaker 1: heavy loaded trucks broke loose from the goods in front
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  Speaker 1: and came running down the hill on top of us.
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  Speaker 1: How long ago was it? Not ten minutes? I was
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  Speaker 1: just starting off down the road to the signal box.
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  Speaker 1: It's a good two miles away. When I saw you coming,
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  Speaker 1: I got I thought there was going to be another smash.
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  Speaker 1: Much damage done. Seems to me as if we're all
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  Speaker 1: smashed up. As far as I can make out, they're
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  Speaker 1: match boxed up in front. I feel as if I
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  Speaker 1: was all broken up inside of me. I've been in
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  Speaker 1: the service going on for thirty years, and this is
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  Speaker 1: the first accident I've been in. It was too dark
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  Speaker 1: to see the man's face, but judging from his tone,
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  Speaker 1: he was either crying or very near to it. Our
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  Speaker 1: guard turned and shouted back to our engine, you'd better
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  Speaker 1: go back to the box and let him know. All right,
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  Speaker 1: came at going back. The special immediately commenced, retreating, whistling
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  Speaker 1: continually as it went. All the countryside must have heard
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  Speaker 1: the engine shrieking, and all who did here must have
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  Speaker 1: understood that on the line something was seriously wrong. The
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  Speaker 1: smash train was all in darkness. The force of the
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  Speaker 1: collision had put out all the carriage lamps. Here was
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  Speaker 1: a flickering candle, there the glimmer of a match. These
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  Speaker 1: were all the lights which shone upon the scene. People
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  Speaker 1: were piling up debris by the side of the line
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  Speaker 1: for the purpose of making a fire, more for illumination
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  Speaker 1: than for warmth. Many of the passengers had succeeded in
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  Speaker 1: freeing themselves and were moving hither and thither about the line,
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  Speaker 1: But but the majority appeared to be still imprisoned. The
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  Speaker 1: carriage doors were jammed. Without the necessary tools, it was
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  Speaker 1: impossible to open them. Every step we took our ears
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  Speaker 1: were saluted by piteous cries. Men, women, children appealed to
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  Speaker 1: us for help. Open the door, sir, in the name
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  Speaker 1: of God, Sir, open the door. Over and over again,
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  Speaker 1: in all sorts of tones, with all degrees of violence.
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  Speaker 1: The supplication was repeated. The guards vainly endeavored to appease
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  Speaker 1: the in many cases half frenzied creatures. All right, sir,
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  Speaker 1: if you will only wait a minute or two, madam,
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  Speaker 1: we can't get the doors open without tools especial trains
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  Speaker 1: just started off to get them. If you'll only have patience,
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  Speaker 1: there'll be plenty of help for every one of you directly.
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  Speaker 1: You'll be quite safe in there if you'll only keep still.
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  Speaker 1: But that was just what they found it most difficult
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  Speaker 1: to do. Keep still. In the front of the train,
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  Speaker 1: all was chaos. The trucks which had done the mischief.
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  Speaker 1: They were afterwards shown to be six of them, together
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  Speaker 1: with two guards. Vans appeared to have been laden with
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  Speaker 1: bags of Portland cement. The bags had burst, and everything
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  Speaker 1: was covered with what seemed gritty dust. The air was
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  Speaker 1: full of the stuff. It got into our eyes, half
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  Speaker 1: blinding us. The engine of the express had turned a
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  Speaker 1: complete somersault. It vomited forth smoke and steam and flames.
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  Speaker 1: Every moment it seemed as if the woodwork of the
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  Speaker 1: carriages immediately behind and beneath would catch fire. The front
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  Speaker 1: coaches were, as the guard had put it, match boxed.
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  Speaker 1: They were nothing but a heap of debris telescoped into
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  Speaker 1: one another in a state of apparently inextricable confusion. It
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  Speaker 1: was broad daylight before access of skain to what had
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  Speaker 1: once been the interiors. The condition of the first third
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  Speaker 1: class compartment revealed an extraordinary state of things. Scattered all
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  Speaker 1: over it were pieces of what looked like partially burnt
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  Speaker 1: rags and fragments of silk and linen. I have those
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  Speaker 1: fragments now. Experts have assured me that they are actually
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  Speaker 1: neither of silk nor linen, but of some material animal
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  Speaker 1: rather than vegetable, with which they are wholly unacquainted. On
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  Speaker 1: the cushions and woodwork, especially on the woodwork of the floor,
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  Speaker 1: were huge blotches stains of some sort. When first noticed,
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  Speaker 1: they were damp and gave out a most unpleasant smell.
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  Speaker 1: One of the pieces of woodwork is yet in my possession,
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  Speaker 1: with the stains still on it. Experts have pronounced upon
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  Speaker 1: it too, with the result that opinions are divided. Some
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  Speaker 1: maintain that the stain was produced by human blood which
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  Speaker 1: had been subjected to a great heat, and so to speak, parboiled.
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  Speaker 1: Others declare that it is the blood of some wild animal,
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  Speaker 1: possibly of some creature of the cat species. Yet others
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  Speaker 1: confirm that it is not blood at all, but merely paint,
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  Speaker 1: while a fourth describes it as I quote the written
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  Speaker 1: opinion which lies in front of me, caused apparently by
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  Speaker 1: a deposit of some sort of vicid matter, probably the
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  Speaker 1: excretion of some variety of lizard. In a corner of
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  Speaker 1: the carriage was the body of what seemed a young
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  Speaker 1: man costumed like a tramp. It was Marjorie Lindon. So
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  Speaker 1: far as most careful search revealed, that that was all
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  Speaker 1: the compartment contained. End of chapter forty seven.