nder such trying circumstances, after having allowed herself to be drawn unawares into familiar conversation with a most attractive young artist, when all of a sudden

ound of broken glass-a quick blank stoppage. Next instant she found herself flung wildly forward into her neighbour's arms

t there had been an accident to the train, and they w

red senses. Then slowly she sank back on the seat once more, vaguely conscious that something t

yril Waring bent forward towards

inute, and see if you're anything worse than severely shaken. No? That's right, then! That's

cry now, for the jar had half stunned her and shaken her brain; but before the artist's face she

ut I've no bones broken. A collision, I suppose. Oughtn't we t

the door wouldn't open. As often happens in such accidents, the jar had jammed it. He tried the other side, and with some difficulty at l

at once, but a far more cu

nd fill in the whole space in front of them. Part of one broken and shattered carriage lay tossed

f it. At least one carriage-the one immediately in front of them-had been crushed and shattered by the force of its f

njured in the other compartments, or among the débris of the broken carriage; and then they must mak

self, when he had got in at Tilgate; the one solitary occupant of the front compartment of their carriage, a fat old lady with a big black bag, had

ed, of course, by the fallen mass of water-logged sandstone. He glanced back towards the open mouth.

n a flattened arch, as if some superincumbent weight were pressing hard upon it. Great heavens, what

by them. Clearly there were TWO weak points m the roof of the tunnel. One had already given way in front; the other was on the very eve of giving way behind them

"Run, run for your life to the mouth of the tunnel! Her

but in that one indivisible moment of time she had taken in and grasped to the full all the varying terrors of the situation. Instead

r haste. "If you go you'll be killed. There's no time to run pa

nfusedly. For a minute or two all was noise and smoke and darkness. What exactly had happened neither of them could see. But now the mouth of the tunnel was blocked at either end alike, and no dayligh

her cry for a while in quiet despair. The poor girl's nerves, it was clear, were now wholly unstrung. She was brave, as women go, undoubtedly bra

out at Warnworth after all. It would have been drea

at he really meant it. He really meant he was glad he'd come on and exposed himself to this risk, which he might otherwise have avoided, because he would be sorry to think a helpless woman should be left alone by hers

ation, and let myself in for this beastly scrape, just because I'd go a few miles further with a pretty girl I never sa

ad been much rain lately. The sandstone was water-logged. It had caved in bodily, before them and behind them. A little isthmus of archway still held out in isolation just above their heads. At any moment t

. Then he paced his way back with groping steps to the equally ruinous mass behind them. Elma's eyes, growing gradually

to her, "and if we can only let them know we're alive in the tunnel, they may possi

een two masses of earth were a matter that needn't cause one the slightest uneasine

lone, for eighteen hours together? Oh, how very dreadful! How long! How frightening! And if the

r with a very regretfu

in the space that's left us; and as we're using it up at every breath, it'll naturally hold out for a limited time only. It can't be much more than

herself vip to a paroxysm of utter misery. This was too, too terrible. To think of eighteen hours in that gloom

the block at either end, to see if perchance any hope remained of opening by main force an exit anywhere. He even began by removing a little of the sand at the side of the line with a piece of shattered board from the br

erself up and down, and moaning low and piteously, looked up as he came with a mute glance of inquiry. She was

the air we may need by-and-by for our own breathing. If I were to climb to the top of the carriage-which I can easily do-I could put them all out, and econom

ands in horror at

ike this, in the gloom. But to die in the dark-that would be ten times more terrible. Why, it's a p

spectful little

nd he hesitated-"perhaps I'd better let it go on for an hour or two more, and then, whenever the air begins to get very oppressive-I mean when one begins to fe

. She knew what he meant at once. She didn't

of it, even. I could never permit it. It's your duty to keep yourself alive at all hazar

s, no family. Nobody on earth would ever be one penny the worse if I were to die, except my twin brother; he's the only relation I ever had in my life; and even HE, I dare say, would very soon get over it. Whereas YOU"-he paused an

what I shall do; I don't know what I shall say to you. Why, I couldn't bear to be left alone here to die by myself. I

ou wish me to live to keep you company in the tunnel, I'll live while

iece of conversational politeness. At that critical moment, Elma k