At that moment I felt a tremendous shock, as if the earth had quaked and
opened beneath me, and this was followed by a deafening uproar, the
clashing of stones, the cracking of wood and glass, the grating and
crushing of iron, and the pitiful cries of men, women, and children.
The great mass of rock broke through the protecting barricade and rushed
right upon the engine. The huge, steam-vomiting leviathan was crushed in
an instant, and the copper and steel fragments scattered everywhere.
Three of the wheels were shattered, and with that the iron colossus came
to a dead stop, the suddenness of which threw the carriages crashing on
top of each other. This fearful havoc was not all. Through the breach
which the great rock had made in the barricade, an incessant avalanche
of stones, from the size of a cannon-ball to that of a wheelbarrow,
descended upon the train, crushing everything beneath into fragments,
pushing the unhappy train into the chasm below, into the valley of death
and destruction. Like a huge serpent it slid down, the great glowing
furnace with its feeding coals undermost, and then the whole wrecked
mass of carriages tumbled after, atop of each other, while cries of
despair were heard on every side. Then I saw the rear car--that in which
I had been sitting--stand up erect on top of the others, while on its
roof fell, with thunderous violence, the awful shower of stones. Mutely
I gazed on, until a large stone struck the barricade just where I stood,
and then I realised that the danger was not over, and ran for shelter.

The stones were falling fast to left and to right, and I hastened to
gain the steps which led to the little watch-house. Then I bethought me
of the boy. I found him still insensible, but otherwise unharmed, and I
took him up, covering him with a furred coat. I ran up the steps with
him, so fast that not a thought of my asthma and heart disease
slackened my speed.