Just pull the latch back when you get ready to come out.' He walked back to Lynn. 'Just part of my job, running the train.'
Lynn looked puzzled. 'I thought the engineer ran the train?'
'Oh no, he only drives the engine. The conductor runs the train. He's responsible for arriving on time, making sure everything is run safely and that the passengers are taken care of properly. A very important job!' He straightened his coat and, unconsciously, struck a pose. The youngster chose that moment to leave the restroom and announce to his mother in a loud voice, 'They even have running water!' as he raced back to his seat.
Lynn's rejoinder, 'But you're still pretty young!' brought Karl back to earth.
They talked for almost twenty minutes about Karl's work, Lynn's plans for school, and her ideas on new products for the mill. Karl held his own in the technical discussions, describing the engineering problems his father had encountered with construction at various points on the line. Lynn described what the mill was doing for rolling the new steel rail. As they passed over a short trestle, Karl described the headaches they had encountered with the pilings. 'The land in this area is very soft and marshy. It took them almost two weeks to get the pilings down far enough to hit solid ground. They had a lot of problems with supplies and equipment sinking into the ground. We've had to keep real close watch on the track to make sure it doesn't buckle or slide. They were eventually able to find a solid ridge up ahead that rises above the soft ground. It's close to a stream and follows its course for about a mile.' The train started to slow down as it reached the foot of the uphill grade.
Karl noticed the door on the stove had come open. 'Excuse me. I need to attend to the stove.' He walked over and checked the coals. They were dull, with lots of ash. He shook the grate and cleared the ash. Not much was left of the fire so he reached for the water pail, which hung nearby, to douse the remnants. As he tossed the water in, he felt a vibration that was unfamiliar. Suddenly, he felt more than heard a loud series of crunches through the frame of the car. A loud screech of steel on steel came from the direction of the engine. Without thinking, Karl dropped the pail, slammed the door of the stove closed and locked it. At the same time, he yelled out, 'Everyone grab something and hold on!' He looked up and saw Gunther and the fireman fly past the window, heading for the soft ground alongside the track. The car reared up in the air. Lynn was thrown from her seat and a small trunk flew off the luggage rack and struck a glancing blow to her head. A wrenching crash, then the car then stopped abruptly. Karl grabbed hold of the overhead rack to keep from being thrown onto the stove. When Lynn's limp body was thrown, he grabbed her with his free arm and hung on. A sharp, grating pain in his arm meant something had broken, but his grip on the luggage rack held.
A loud, metallic snap sounded from the car behind them. Karl frantically looked toward the rear. The second car tilted almost ninety degrees in the opposite direction his car was leaning. The crash posts had held and they were safe from that direction. The cars gave one last groan, settled and stopped moving. Amazingly, he and Lynn were the only ones who had been thrown forward. Everyone else had heard his warning and held on. He called out, 'Anyone else hurt? Check those around you.'
A voice from the far end of the car called out, 'I think I broke an ankle.'
Still holding Lynn, Karl called out, 'Can someone help him?'
Surprisingly, the grandmother from across the aisle got up and went back to help. She managed to walk on the sides of the seat legs with little difficulty. Karl checked Lynn's pulse. It was strong, but a nasty gash on her head was bleeding freely and already starting to purple. She moaned a little, but didn't waken. He set her down, then took out his handkerchief and pressed it firmly to the cut.
The stove was still secured to the floor by its stay bolts and the door was shut. Fire, the other major concern in train wrecks, wouldn't happen here, but Karl could smell a faint smoke odor. It must be the stove on the other car. Fighting back nausea and pain from his broken arm, Karl gathered up three fire grenades that were fastened above the stove and made his way back to the second car. Luckily, the doors were unlatched, but he still had trouble stepping across, clutching the grenades to his chest. When he finally entered, the stove was still attached, but the door had come off its hinges and coals were spread on the floor. He quickly threw all three grenades. Their glass shells broke and spread the chemical on the coals. Holding his breath, Karl grabbed two more grenades from above the stove and added them to the effort. The flames sputtered out, Karl ducked out of the door, closed it and sucked in a lungful of clean air. While the grenades were very effective in killing the flames, he had also been warned that they were equally effective in killing anyone who breathed in too much of their fumes.
Karl gingerly descended to the ground and looked around. His arm was beginning to throb. He cradled it with his right hand. He thought he knew every foot of the line, but he didn't remember a pond on this section. The passenger cars had come to rest leaning in opposite directions, but still on their wheels. They were headed downhill, with their wheels resting on opposite sides of a small ravine. The first car had struck a pile of coal, which accounted for the sudden stop. The coal had no business being piled there. Karl stepped around the pile and the reason for its existence became evident. The tender had struck a large stump and flipped over, dumping the coal in its flight. The tender was twisted around a large tree, upside down, about fifty feet further down the ravine. By some fluke, the engine had missed the stump and the large trees on both sides of the ravine and simply continued down the ravine, to settle in a large pond. It was wreathed in a cloud of steam. Karl started to head toward the engine to check on the crew but then remember seeing them bail out. They were lucky! Bailing out had kept them from being scalded to death. Karl started to turn, still wondering where they were, when a voice behind him caused him to jump. The arm reminded him forcefully that it needed attention soon.
'Do you know what happened?' Gunther yelled. 'The rails gave way! When we started riding on the ties, Hans and I jumped.' Suddenly, the cloud of steam seemed to register with him. His eyes went wide and he started to stammer, ' O-otherwise we'd have been cooked alive!' Gunther pointed toward the engine. 'My poor Annalise. What has happened to you?'
It took Karl a moment to understand who Gunther was talking about. Gunther had a name for his engine! Even more astonishing was that the shock of the accident had finally loosened his tongue and he had said more than five words at the same time! Karl grabbed Gunther with his good hand and pulled him back toward the ravine to help check further on the passengers. 'Come on. They'll get her out all right. She's just in some water. Help me get this arm splinted and then we can see about getting a message out to get help.' Gunther kept looking back over his shoulder as they climbed onto the nearest platform.
Karl looked around again to try and get his bearings. 'Do you recognize where we are? I don't remember any pond on this section. I thought we were about ten miles from Jena.'
Gunther nodded. 'We are ten miles out. This pond is new.'
Karl fumbled for the key to the mail room. He finally stuck out his hip for Gunther to reach into his left coat pocket for the key. 'Help me get the telegraph rod and key rigged up so I can send a message for help.' Gunther found the key and opened the door. He got the emergency telegraph key and the long rod to tap into the wire. Once Gunther hooked the pole end over the telegraph wire and attached the key, Karl sent the message calling for help and gave their approximate position. Both Grantville and Jena acknowledged and said help was on the way.
'Oh . . .' Karl was seeing spots before his eyes. Then nothing.
****
'Karl? Karl?' A soft patting on his cheek.
'Wh . . .' Karl opened his eyes.
Gunther stopped patting his cheek. 'You're awake. Good.' Then he began to give Karl a report. 'Besides your broken arm, there are two broken ankles and numerous cuts and bruises.'
Karl looked around. Someone had removed a pair of seat bottoms and Lynn was resting on them, with a makeshift bandage around the cut on her head. The grandmother was sitting beside her. Karl struggled to his feet, then walked over. 'Do you need anything?'
Lynn looked up, but the grandmother remarked, 'Young man, I do believe your estimate on our arrival time may be a little off!' Laughing at her attempt at humor she then pointed toward Lynn. 'She should be fine.'
Lynn's eyes opened and immediately fixed on him.
The question was totally unexpected. Karl was still a little woozy and had to pause and reconstruct what had happened. It had all happened so fast. He hadn't been thinking, just reacting. When he realized what might have happened if he hadn't caught Lynn, he almost fainted again. He managed to mumble, 'I suppose so. I was just doing my duty.' He quickly realized how unfeeling that sounded. 'I mean, I'm glad you're safe. Everything happened so fast, I couldn't let someone as nice as you get hurt if there was any way I could help it.' He started to blush and
