"Here it is, look!" I said, turning his face toward the high pole right
in front of him. He gazed up wistfully, and then all at once he
blubbered out--

"See! See, the red light! I gave the warning. They cannot blame me; they
dare not punish me for it. It is not my fault!"

Of course, he thought of nothing but himself, and the misfortune of the
others touched him only in so far as he was concerned.

"Don't blubber now!" I said. "There will be time enough to think of
ourselves. Now let us learn what has happened to the others. The whole
train has been swept down into the abyss below. What has become of the
people in it?"

"God Almighty have mercy on their souls!"

"Yet perhaps we could save some of them. Come along!"

"I can't go. I dare not leave my post, else they will turn against me."

"Well then, I shall go alone," said I, and hastened down the steps.

I heard no screams, no cries, not a sound of human voices. The poor
victims of the catastrophe were exhausted or frightened out of their
wits, and gave no utterance to the pain they felt. Only the
never-ceasing clatter of the falling stones was heard, nothing else.
Awful is the voice of the elements, and dreadful their revenge on their
human antagonists! The thundering heavens, the roaring sea, are awful
to behold and to listen to; but most fearful of all is the voice of the