Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 8

train pulling up that incline. Come to think on it now
I’m not so sure we didn’t hear it from the camp but
felt it. Makes no sense but that’s the best way I can put
it. We felt that train coming and we went to the line
like we was called. Lou hawked up a wad of chewing
tobacco onto the ground as that train pulled over the
crest and agreed with Elmore as how he didn’t like
this one bit.

We were standing there by the line and as
it topped the crest it let a blast of its whistle go that
would have woke the dead. Hattie made as if she
was going to run back to the camp but she didn’t, she
stood there with the rest of us. I watched her half turn
then turn back and that was when the engine pulled
alongside us and when I tried to look into the cab I
couldn’t see anything.

And then the damnedest thing, that train
started to slow down like it was picking up passengers
at a station. It hauled itself to a stop in less than fifty
yards with no squealing or locking a wheel. When it
finally stopped the smokestack blew a gout of smoke
as steam hissed out of the pistons and then there was
nothing but silence, us, and a train the like of which
hadn’t been seen for forty years.

That train sure gave us all the jitters and I was
about ready to fill my britches. Lou was just standing
there chewing on that wad of tobacco. He asked
Elmore if he was right in saying that it was an old
Union Pacific 4-4-0 and Elmore said that was right
but the details were of