The Engineer by Amelia B. Edwards - Full Audiobook | Short Stories

[Music] the engineer by Amelia B Edwards [Music] his name sir was Matthew price minus Benjamin Hardy we were born within a few days of each other bred up in the same Village taught at the same school I cannot remember the time when we were not close friends even as boys we never knew what it was to quarrel we had not a thought we had not a possession that was not in common we would have stood by each other fearlessly to the death it was such a friendship as one reads about sometimes in books fast and firm as the great tours Upon Our native more lands true as the sun in the heavens the name of our village was Chadley lifted high above the pasture Flats which stretched away at our feet like a measureless Green Lake and melted into mist on the furthest Horizon it nestled a tiny stone-built hamlet in a sheltered Hollow about midway between the plain and the plateau above us Rising Ridge Beyond Ridge slope Beyond slope spread the mountainous Moore country bear and Bleak for the most part with here and there a patch of cultivated field or Hardy Plantation and crowned highest of all with masses of huge gray Crag abrupt isolated hoary and older than the deluge these were the tours Druids tour King's tour Castle tour and the like sacred places as I have heard in the ancient time where crownings burnings human sacrifices and all kinds of bloody Heathen rights were performed bones too had been found there and arrowheads and ornaments of gold and glass I had a vague ore of the tours in those boyish days and would not have gone near them after dark for the heaviest bribe I have said that we were born in the same Village he was the son of a small farmer named William price and the eldest of a family of seven I was the only child of Ephraim Hardy the Chadley blacksmith a well-known man in those parts whose memory is not forgotten to this day just so far as a farmer is supposed to be a bigger man than a blacksmith Matt's father might be said to have a better standing than mine but William price with his small holding and his seven boys was in fact as poor as many a day laborer whilst the blacksmith well to do bustling popular and open-handed was a person of some importance in the place all this however had nothing to do with Matt and myself it never occurred to either of us that his jacket was outer elbows or that our mutual funds came altogether from my pocket it was enough for us that we sat on the same school bench conned our tasks from the same primer fought each other's battles screened each other's faults fished nutted played truant robbed Orchards and birds nests together and spent every half hour authorized or stolen in each other's Society it was a happy time but it could not go on forever my father being prosperous resolved to put me forward in the world I must know more and do better than himself the forge was not good enough the little world of Chad Lee not wide enough for me thus it happened that I was still swinging the Satchel when Matt was whistling at the plow and that at last when my future course was shaped out we were separated as it then seemed to us for life for blacksmith's son as I was furnace and Forge in some form or other pleased me best and I chose to be a working engineer so my father by and by apprenticed me to a Birmingham Iron master and having Biden farewell to Matt and chatley and the gray old tours in the shadow of which I had spent all the days of my life I turned my face northward and went over into the black country I am not going to dwell on this part of my story how I worked out the term of my apprenticeship how when I had served my full term and become a skilled Workman I took Matt from the plow and brought him over to the black country sharing with him lodging wages experience all in short that I had to give how he naturally quick to learn and brimful of Quiet Energy worked his way up a step at a time and came by and by to be a first hand in his own Department how during all these years of change and trial and effort the old boyish affection never wavered or weakened but went on growing with our growth and strengthening with our strength are facts which I need do no more than outline in this place about this time it will be remembered that I speak of the days when Matt and I were on the bright side of 30 it happened that our firm contracted to supply six first-class locomotives to run on the new line then in process of construction between Turin and Genoa it was the first Italian order we had taken we had had dealings with France Holland Belgium Germany but never with Italy the connection therefore was new and valuable all the more valuable because our transalpine neighbors had but lately begun to lay down the iron roads and would be safe to need more of our good English work as they went on so the Birmingham firm set themselves to the contract with a will lengthened our working hours increased our wages took on Fresh hands and determined If energy and promptitude could do it to place themselves at the head of the Italian labor market and stay there they deserved and achieved success the six locomotives were not only turned out to time but were shipped dispatched and delivered with a promptitude that fairly amazed our piedmontese consignee I was not a little proud you may be sure when I found myself appointed to superintend the transport of the engines being allowed a couple of assistance I contrived that Matt should be one of them and thus we enjoyed together the first great holiday of Our Lives it was a wonderful change for two Birmingham operatives fresh from the Black Country the fairy City with its Crescent background of Alps the ports crowded with strange shipping The Marvelous blue sky and Bluer sea the painted hoses on the keys the quaint Cathedral faced with black and white marble the street of Jewelers like an Arabian Night Bazaar the street of palaces with its Moorish Courtyards its fountains and orange trees the women veiled like Brides The Galley slaves chained two and two the processions of priests and Friars the Everlasting clanger of bells the babble of a strange tongue the singular lightness and brightness of the climate made altogether such a combination of Wonders that we wondered about the first day in a kind of bewildered dream like children at a fair before that week was ended being tempted by the beauty of the place and the liberality of the pay we had agreed to take service with the Turin and Genoa Railway company and to turn our backs upon Birmingham forever then began a new life a life so active and healthy so steeped in fresh air and sunshine that we sometimes marveled how we could have endured the Gloom of the black country we were constantly up and down the line now at Genoa now at Turin taking trial trips with the locomotives and placing our old experiences at the service of our new employers in the meanwhile we made Genoa our headquarters and hired a couple of rooms over a small shop in a by Street sloping down to the Keys such a busy little street so Steep and winding that no vehicles could pass through it and so narrow that the sky looked like a mere strip of Deep Blue Ribbon overhead every house in it however was a shop where the goods encroached on the footway or were piled about the door or hung like tapestry from the balconies and all day long from dawn to dusk an incessant stream of passersby poured up and down between the port and the upper quarter of the city our landlady was the Widow of a silver worker and lived by the sale of filigree ornaments cheap jewelry Combs fans and toys in Ivory and jet she had an only daughter named Janetta who served in the shop and was simply the most beautiful woman I ever beheld looking back across this weary Chasm of years and bringing her image before me as I can and do with all the vividness of life I am unable even now to detect a floor in her beauty I do not attempt to describe her I do not believe there is a poet living who could find the words to do it but I once saw a picture that was somewhat like her not half so lovely but still like her and for ought I know that picture is still hanging where I last looked at it upon the walls of the Louvre it represented a woman with brown eyes and golden hair looking over her shoulder into a circular mirror held by a bearded man in the background in this man as I then understood the artist had painted his own portrait in her the portrait of the woman he loved no picture that I ever saw was half so beautiful and yet it was not worthy to be named in the same breath with geneta Cornelia you may be certain the Widow shop did not want for customers all Genoa knew how fair a face was to be seen behind that dingy little counter and Janetta flirt as she was had more lovers than she cared to remember even by name gentle and simple rich and poor from the red-capped Sailor buying his earrings or his amulet to the nobleman carelessly purchasing half the filigrees in the window she treated them all alike encouraged them laughed at them LED them on and turned them off at her pleasure she had no more heart than a marble statue as Matt and I discovered by and by to our bitter cost I cannot tell to this day how it came about or what first led me to suspect how things were going with us both but long before the waning of that Autumn a coldness had sprung up between my friend and myself it was nothing that could have been put into words it was nothing that either of us could have explained or Justified to save his life we lodged together eight together worked together exactly as before we even took our long evenings walk together when the day's labor was ended and except perhaps that we were more silent than that of old no mere looker on could have detected a shadow of change yet there it was silent and subtle widening the gulf between us every day it was not his fault he was too true and gentle-hearted to have willingly brought about such a state of things between us neither do I believe fiery as my nature is that it was mine it was all hers hers From First to Last the sin and the shame and the sorrow if she had shown a fair and open preference for either of us no real harm could have come of it I would have put any constraint upon myself and Heaven Knows have borne any suffering to see Matt really happy I know that he would have done the same and more if he could for me but Janetta cared not one sue for either she never meant to choose between us it gratified her vanity to divide us it amused her to play with us it would pass my power to tell how by a thousand imperceptible shades of cockatry by the lingering of a glance the substitution of a word the flitting of a smile she contrived to turn our heads and torture our hearts and lead us on to love her she deceived us both she buoyed us both up with hope she maddened us with jealousy she crushed us with despair for my part when I seemed to wake to a sudden sense of the ruin that was about our path and I saw how the truest friendship that ever bound two lives together was drifting on to wreck and ruin I asked myself whether any woman in the world was worth what Matt had been to me and I to him but this was not often I was readier to shut my eyes upon the truth than to face it and so lived on willfully in a dream thus the Autumn passed away and winter came the strange treacherous genoese winter green with olive and ilex Brilliant with sunshine and bitter with storm still Rivals at heart and friends on the surface Matt and I lingered on in our lodging in the vicolo balber still Janetta held us with her fatal Wiles and her still more fatal Beauty at length there came a day when I felt I could bear the horrible misery and suspense of it no longer the sun I vowed should not go down before I knew my sentence she must choose between us she must either take me or let me go I was Reckless I was desperate I was determined to know the worst or the best if the worst I would at once turn my back upon Genoa upon her upon all the Pursuits and purposes of my past life and begin the world anew this I told her passionately and sternly standing before her in the little parlor at the back of the shop one Bleak December morning if it's Matt whom you care for most I said tell me so in one word and I will never trouble you again he is better worth your love I am jealous and exacting he is as trusting and unselfish as a woman speak Jeanetta am I to bid you goodbye forever and ever or am I to write home to my mother in England bidding her prey to God to bless the woman who has promised to be my wife you plead your friend's cause well she replied heartily Mateo ought to be grateful this is more than he ever did for you give me my answer for pity's sake I exclaimed and let me go you are free to go or stay Senor English she replied I am not your jailer do you bid me leave you not I will you marry me if I stay she laughed aloud such a merry mocking musical laugh like a chime of Silver Bells you ask too much she said only what you have led me to hope these five or six months passed that is just what Mateo says how tiresome you both are oh Janetta I said passionately be serious for one moment I am a rough fellow it is true not half good enough or clever enough for you but I love you with my whole heart and an emperor could do no more I am glad of it she replied I do not want you to love me less then you cannot wish to make me wretched will you promise me I promise nothing she said with another burst of laughter except that I will not marry Mateo accept that she would not marry Mateo only that not a word of Hope for myself nothing but my friend's condemnation I might get comfort and selfish Triumph and some sort of Base Assurance out of that if I could and so to my shame I did I grasped at the vain encouragement and fool that I was let her put me off again unanswered from that day I gave up all effort at self-control and let myself drift blindly on to destruction at length things became so bad between Matt and myself but it seemed as if an open rupture must be at hand we avoided each other scarcely exchanged a dozen sentences in a day and fell away from all our old familiar habits at this time I shudder to remember it there were moments when I felt that I hated him thus with the trouble deepening and widening between us day by day another month or five weeks went by and February came and with February the carnival they said in Genoa that it was a particularly dull Carnival and so it must have been for save a flag or two hung out in some of the principal streets and a sort of Fester look about the women there were no special indications of the Season it was I think the second day when having been on the line all the morning I returned to Genoa at dusk and to my surprise found Matt price on the platform he came up to me and laid his hand on my arm you are in late he said I've been waiting for you three quarters of an hour shall We Dine together today impulsive as I am this evidence of returning Good Will at once called up my better feelings with all my heart Matt I replied should we go to godzoli's no no he said hurriedly some quieter Place some place where we can talk I have something to say to you I noticed now that he looked pale and agitated and an uneasy sense of apprehension stole upon me we decided on the Pescatore a little out of the way Trattoria down near the mall of Akio there in a dingy Salon frequented chiefly by Seaman and redolent of tobacco we ordered our simple dinner Matt scarcely swallowed a morsel but calling presently for a bottle of Sicilian wine drank eagerly well Matt I said as the last dish was placed on the table what news have you bad I guess that from your face bad for you bad for me Janetta mod of Janetta he passed his hand nervously across his lips Janetta is false worse than false he said in a hoarse voice she values an honest man's heart just as she values a flower for her hair where is it for a day then throws it aside forever she is cruelly wronged us both in what way good heaven speak out in the worst way that a woman can wrong those who love her she has sold herself to the Marchese laredano the blood rushed to my head and face in a burning torrent I could scarcely see and dared not trust myself to speak I saw her going towards the cathedral he went on hurriedly it was about three hours ago I thought she might be going to confession so I hung back and followed her at a distance when she got inside however she went straight to the back of the pulpit where this man was waiting for her you remember him an old man who used to haunt the shop a month or two back well seeing how deep in conversation they were and how they stood close under the pulpit with their backs towards the church I fell into a passion of anger and went straight up the aisle intending to say or do something I scarcely knew what but at all events to draw her arm through mine and take her home when I came within a few feet however and found only a big pillar between myself and them I paused they could not see me nor I them but I could hear their voices distinctly and and I listened well and you heard the terms of a shameful bargain Beauty on the one side gold on the other so many thousand francs a year a villa near Naples per it makes me sick to repeat it and with a shutter he poured out another glass of wine and drank it at a draft after that he said presently I made no effort to bring her away the whole thing was so cold-blooded so deliberate so shameful that I felt I had only to wipe her out of my memory and leave her to her fate I stole out of the cathedral and walked about here by the Sea forever so long trying to get my thoughts straight then I remembered you Ben and the recollection of how this wanton had come between us and broken up our lives drove me wild so I went up to the station and waited for you I felt you ought to know it all and and I thought perhaps that we might go back to England together the Marchese laredano it was all that I could say all that I could think as Mata just said of himself I felt like one stunned there is one other thing I may as well tell you he added reluctantly if only to show you how false a woman can be we we were to have been married next month we who do you mean I mean that we were to have been married Jeanetta and I a sudden storm of Rage of scorn of incredulity swept over me at this and seemed to carry my senses away you I cried Janetta marry you I don't believe it I wish I had not believed it he replied looking up as if puzzled by my vehements but she promised me and I thought when she promised it she meant it she told me weeks ago that she would never be your wife his color rose his brow darkened when his answer came it was as calm as the last indeed he said then it is only one baseness more she told me that she had refused you and that was why we kept our engagement Secret tell the truth Matt price I said well nigh beside myself with suspicion confessed that every word of this is false confess that Janetta will not listen to you and that you are afraid I may succeed where you have failed as perhaps I shall as perhaps I shall after all are you mad he exclaimed what do you mean that I believe it's just a trick to get me away to England that I don't credit a syllable of your story you're a liar and I hate you he rose and laying one hand on the back of his chair looked me sternly in the face if you were not Benjamin Hardy he said deliberately I would thrash you within an inch of your life the words had no sooner passed his lips then I sprang at him I've never been able distinctly to remember what followed a curse a blow a struggle a moment of Blind Fury a cry a confusion of tongues a circle of strange faces then I see Matt lying back in the arms of a bystander myself trembling and bewildered the knife dropping from my grasp blood upon the floor blood upon my hands blood upon his shirt and then I hear those Dreadful words oh Ben you have murdered me he did not die at least not there and then he was carried to the nearest hospital and lay for some weeks between life and death his case they said was difficult and dangerous the knife had gone in just below the collarbone and pierced down into the lungs he was not allowed to speak or turn scarcely to breathe with freedom he might not even lift his head to drink I sat by him day and night all through that sorrowful time I gave up my situation on the railway I quitted my lodging in the vikola balba I tried to forget that such a woman as Jeanetta Cornelia had ever drawn breath I lived only for Matt and he tried to live more I believe for my sake than his own thus in the bitter silent hours of pain and penitence when no hand but mine approached his lips or smoothed his pillow the old friendship came back with even more than its old trust and faithfulness he forgave me fully and freely and I would thankfully have given my life for him at length there came one bright spring morning when dismissed as convalescent he tottered out through the hospital Gates leaning on my arm as feeble as an infant he was not cured neither as I then learned to my horror and anguish was it possible that he ever could be cured he might live with care for some years but the lungs were injured Beyond hope of Remedy and a strong or healthy man he could never be again these spoken aside to me were The Parting words of the chief physician who advised me to take him further south without delay I took him to a little Coast town called Rocha some 30 miles Beyond Genoa a sheltered lonely place along the Riviera where the sea was even Bluer Than The Sky and the cliffs were green with strange tropical plants cacti and aloes and Egyptian Palms here we lodged in the house of a small Tradesman and Matt to use his own words set to work getting well in good earnest but alas it was a work which no earnestness could forward day after day he went down to the beach and sat for hours drinking the Sea Air and watching the sails that came and went in the offing by and by he could go no further than the garden of the house in which we lived a little later and he spent his days on a couch beside the open window waiting patiently for the end I for the end it had come to that he was fading fast waning with the waning summer and conscious that the reaper was at hand his whole AIM now was to soften the agony of my remorse and prepare me for what must shortly come I would not live longer if I could he said lying on his couch one summer evening and looking up to the Stars if I had my choice at this moment I would ask to go I should like Jeanetta to know that I forgave her she shall know it I said trembling suddenly from head to foot he pressed my hand and you'll write to father I will I had drawn a little back that he might not see the tears raining down my cheeks but he raised himself on his elbow and looked round don't fret Ben he whispered laid his head back wearily on the pillow and so died and this was the end of it this was the end of all that made life life to me I buried him there in the hearing of the wash of a strange sea on a strange Shore I stayed by the grave till the priest and the bystanders were gone I saw the Earth filled in to the last sod and the gravedigger stamp it down with his feet then and not till then I felt that I had lost him forever the friend I had loved and hated and slain then and not till then I knew that all rest and joy and hope were over for me from that moment my heart hardened within me and my life was filled with loathing day and night Land and Sea labor and rest food and sleep were alike hateful to me it was the curse of Cain and that my brother had pardoned me made it lie none the lighter peace on Earth was for me no more and Good Will towards men was dead in my heart forever remorse softened some Natures but it poisoned mine I hated all mankind but Above All Mankind I hated the woman who had come between us too and ruined both our lives he had bitten me seek her out and be the messenger of his forgiveness I had sooner have gone down to the port of Genoa and taken upon me the surge cap and shotted chain of any Galley Slave at his toil in the public works but for all that I did my best to obey him I went back alone and on foot I went back intending to say to her he forgave you but God never will but she was gone the little shop was let to a fresh occupant and the neighbors only knew that mother and daughter had left the place quite suddenly and that genetta was supposed to be under the protection of the Marchese loredano how I made inquiries here and there how I heard that they had gone to Naples and how being restless and Reckless of my time I worked my passage in a French steamer and followed her how having found the Sumptuous Villa that was now hers I learned that she had left there some 10 days and gone to Paris where the Marchesi was Ambassador for the two sicilies how working my passage back again to Marseille and then sin part by the river and in part by the rail I made my way to Paris how day after day I paced the streets and the parks watched at the ambassador's gate followed his carriage and at last after weeks of waiting discovered her address how having written to request an interview her servant spurned me from her door and flung my letter in my face how looking up at her windows I then instead of forgiving solemnly cursed her with a bitterest curses my tongue could devise and how this done I shook the dust of Paris from my feet and became a Wanderer upon the face of the Earth are facts which I have now no space to tell the next six or eight years of my life were shifting and unsettled enough a morose and Restless man I took employment here and there as opportunity offered turning my hand to many things and caring little what I earned so long as the work was hard and the change incessant first of all I engaged myself as chief engineer in one of the French Steamers playing between Marseille and Constantinople at Constantinople I changed to one of the Austrian Lloyd's boats and worked for some time to and from Alexandria Jaffa and those parts after that I fell in with a party of Mr Laird's men at Cairo and so went up the Nile and took a turn the excavations of the mound of nimrod then I became a working engineer on the new desert line between Alexandria and sewers and by and by I worked my passage out to Bombay and took Service as an engine fitter on one of the Great Indian railways I stayed a long time in India and that is to say I stayed nearly two years which was a long time for me and I might not even have left so soon but for the war that was declared just then with Russia that tempted me for I loved danger and hardship as other men love safety and ease and as for my life I had sooner have parted from it than kept it any day so I came straight back to England but took myself to Portsmouth where my testimonials at once procured me the sort of birth I wanted I went out to the Crimea in the engine room of one of Her Majesty's War steamers I served with a fleet of course while the War lasted and when it was over went wandering off again rejoicing in my Liberty this time I went to Canada and after working on a railway then in progress near the American frontier I presently passed over into the States journeyed from north to south crossed the Rocky Mountains tried a month or two of life in the Gold Country and then being seized with a sudden aching unaccountable longing to revisit that solitary grave so far away on the Italian Coast I turned my face once more towards Europe poor little grave I found it rank with weeds the cross half shattered the inscription half effaced it was as if no one had loved him or remembered him I went back to the house in which we had lodged together the same people were still living there and made me kindly welcome I stayed with them for some weeks I weeded and planted and trimmed the grave with my own hands and set up a fresh cross in Pure White marble it was the first season of rest that I had known since I laid him there and when At Last I shouldered my knapsack and set forth again to battle with the world I promised myself that God willing I would creep back to Roger when my days Drew near to ending and be buried by a side from hence being perhaps a little less inclined than formally for very distant parts and willing to keep Within Reach of that grave I went no further than manchua where I engaged myself as an engine driver on the line then not long completed between that City and Venice somehow although I had been trained to the working engineering I preferred in these days to earn my bread by driving I liked the excitement of it the sense of power the rush of the air the Roar of the fire the flitting of the landscape above all I enjoyed to drive a night express the worse the weather the better it suited with my Sullen temper for I was as hard and harder than ever the years had done nothing to soften me they had only confirmed all that was blackest and bitterest in my heart I continued pretty faithful to the manchua line and had been working on it steadily for more than seven months when that which I am now about to relate took place it was in the month of March the weather had been unsettled for some days past and the night stormy and at one point along the line near Ponte de brenta the waters had risen and swept away some 70 yards of embankment since this accident the trains had all been obliged to stop at a certain spot between Padua and Ponte de brenta and the passengers with their luggage had then to be transported in all kinds of vehicles by a circuitous country road to the nearest station on the other side of the Gap where another train an engine awaited them this of course caused Great confusion and annoyance and put all our timetables wrong and subjected the public to a large amount of inconvenience in the meanwhile an army of navies was drafted to the spot and worked day and night to repair the damage at this time I was driving two through trains each day namely one from Mantua to Venice in the early morning and a return train from Venice to manchua in the afternoon a tolerably full day's work covering about 190 miles of ground and occupying between 10 and 11 hours I was therefore not best pleased when on the third or fourth day after the accident I was informed that in addition to my regular allowance of work I should that evening be required to drive a special train to Venice this special train consisting of an engine a single carriage and a brake van was to leave the manchua platform at 11. the passengers were to a light and find post chases waiting to convey them to Ponte de brenta at Ponte de brenta another engine carriage and Brake van were to be in Readiness I was charged to accompany them throughout said the clerk who gave me my orders you need not look so black man you are certain of a handsome gratuity do you know who goes with you not I not you indeed why it's the ducoloredano the Neapolitan ambassador floridano I stammered what lauridano there was a Marchesi Certo he was the margasia loredano some years ago but he has come into His Duke Tom since then he must be a very old man by this time yes he is old but what of that he is as hail and bright and stately as ever you have seen him before yes I said turning away I have seen him years ago you have heard of his marriage I shook my head the Clark chuckled rubbed his hands and Shrugged his shoulders an extraordinary Affair he said May the tremendous escalandre at the time he married his mistress quite a common vulgar girl a genoisie very handsome but not received of course nobody visits her married her I exclaimed impossible true I assure you I put my hand to my head I felt as if I had had a fall or a blow does she does she go tonight I faltered oh dear yes it goes everywhere with him never lets him out of her sight you'll see her La Bella deuces with this my informant laughed and rubbed his hands again and went back to his office the day went by I scarcely know how except that my whole soul was in a tumult of rage and bitterness I returned from my afternoon's work about 7 25 and at 10 30 I was once again at the station I had examined the engine given instructions to the focista or stoker about the fire seen to the supply of oil and got all in Readiness when just as I was about to compare my watch with the clock in the ticket office a hand was laid upon my arm and a voice in my ear said are you the engine driver who is going on with this special train I had never seen the speaker before he was a small dark man muffled up about the throat with blue glasses a large black beard and his hat drawn low upon his eyes you are a poor man I suppose he said in a quick eager whisper and like other poor men would not object to be better off would you like to earn a couple of thousand florins in what way hush you are to stop at Padua are you not and to go on again at Ponte Di brenta I nodded suppose you did nothing of the kind suppose instead of turning off the steam you jump off the engine and let the train run on impossible there are 70 yards of embankment gone and pasta I know that save yourself and let the train run on it would be nothing but an accident I turned hot and cold I trembled my heart beat fast and my breath failed why do you tempt me I faltered for Italy's sake he whispered for Liberty's sake I know you are no Italian but for all that you may be a friend this loredano is one of his country's bitterest enemies stay here are the two thousand florins I thrust his hand back fiercely no no I said no blood Money if I do it I do it neither for Italy nor for money but for vengeance for vengeance he repeated at this moment the signal was given for backing up to the platform I sprang to my place among the engine without another word when I again look towards the spot where he had been standing The Stranger was gone I saw them take their places Duke and Duchess secretary and priest valet and made I saw the station Master bow them into the carriage and stand bare-headed beside the door I could not distinguish their faces the platform was too Dusk and the glare from the engine fire too strong but I recognized her stately figure and the Poise of her head had I not been told who she was I should have known her by those traits alone then the guards whistle shrilled out and the station Master made his last bow I turned the Steam on and we started my blood was on fire I no longer trembled or hesitated I felt as if every nerve was iron and every pulse Instinct with deadly purpose she was in my power and I would be revenged she should die she for whom I had stained my soul with my friend's blood she should die in the plenitude of her wealth and her beauty and no power upon Earth should save her the stations flew past I put on More Steam I bet the firemen he pinned the Coke and stir the Blazing Mass I would have outstripped the wind had it been possible faster and faster Hedges and trees Bridges and stations flashing past Villages no sooner seen than gone Telegraph wires twisting and dipping and Twining themselves in one with the awful swiftness of our pace faster and faster till the firemen at my side looks white and scared and refuses to add more fuel to the furnace faster and faster till the wind rushes in our faces and drives the breath back upon our lips I would have scorned to save myself I meant to die with the rest mad as I was and I believe from my very soul that I was utterly mad for the time I felt a passing Pang of pity for the old man in his sweet I would have spared the poor fellow at my side too if I could but the pace at which we were going made Escape impossible vicenzo was passed a mere confused vision of light poyana flew by at pachua but nine miles distant our passengers were to a light I saw the fireman's face turned upon me in remonstrance I saw his lips move though I could not hear a word I saw his expression change suddenly from remonstrance to a deadly Terror and then merciful heaven then for the first time I saw that he and I were no longer alone upon the engine there was a third man a third man standing on my right hand as the fireman was standing on my left a tall stalwart man with short curling hair and a flat Scotch cap upon his head as I fell back in the first shock of surprise he stepped nearer took my place at the engine and turned the steam off I opened my lips to speak to him he turned his head slowly and looked me in the face Matthew price I uttered one long wild cry flung my arms wildly up above my head and fell as if I had been smitten with an ax I am prepared for the objections that may be made to my story I expect as a matter of course to be told that this was an optical illusion or that I was suffering from pressure on the brain or even that I labored under an attack of temporary insanity I have heard all these arguments before and if I may be forgiven for saying so I have no desire to hear them again my own mind has been made up upon this subject for many a year all that I can say all that I know is that Matthew price came back from the dead to save my soul and the lives of Those whom I in my guilty rage would have hurried to destruction I believe this as I believe in the mercy of Heaven and the Forgiveness of repentant sinners thank you for listening to the engineer by Amelia B Edwards if you have enjoyed this audiobook please consider subscribing and leaving a like to help in the making of future audiobooks foreign

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Length: 51min 25sec (3085 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023