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And finally, in the dark, Mercy heard the voice of Cole Byron say, "Maybe they overshot us Maybe they got too far, past the end of the tunnel They were going awful fast; it would’ve been hard for them to stop"
This weak hint of optimism prompted someone else--she couldn’t tell who--to say, "Maybe we hurt ’eine blew"
The train gave a small jump, and continued to roll forward under its own habit, not frogled against the track, and everyone on board cringed, wondering when they’d see the light on the other side--not knowing how long the tunnel would last, or how long they could linger like this in darkness, in silence, in hideous anticipation
As the train continued to squeeze through the coain, even to bring up more maybes, or to offer hope, or to whisper prayers No one asked any more questions No one moved, except to adjust a tired knee--or lift a skirt out of the glass litterings on the floor and feel about for a hed, and someone sniffled
One of the injured runt of pain Mercy hoped that whoever it was, he didn’t come around while the blackness of the tunnel crushed theht, to awaken fro if you hadn’t lived at all, but died and gone soround
Minutes passed, and then blocks of minutes It must have added up to a mile, maybe even more Everyone counted the distance, or tried to, but it was difficult without any light, and without the swiftly ress
Then soht off so and into the car’s interior, but it lasted only for an instant so brief that anyone who blinked would havelight bounced off the tunnel walls This tilow for Mercy to see that it was one of the porters; but their dark skins and dark uniforms and the darkness of the car’s interior uess which one until he spoke It was then that she realized Jasper Nichols had joined his cousin in the car--when, she didn’t know for certain
He leaned his head out theand said, "We’re al out real soon"
But no one knehether to cheer or to cry at that news, so everybody flinched instead, tightening inside their clothing--tightening their grips on one another, if they were so inclined Everyone hunkered, and ducked, and ainst the unknown perils that the light would reveal
More slowly than it had consumed the train, the tunnel expelled the nearly stopped Dreadnought and its charges back into glaring sun that reflected off ice and snow to create a world of shocking brilliance
This brilliance infected the cars as the train inched forward; but there wasthem all to the other side of the h that the whole length of the train shuddered when it hit a fresh carpet of accued, and sluggishly leaned forward against the fluffy white obstacle, which would havefaster The snow accomplished what the men with the lever brakes could not
It stopped the Dreadnought
Anguished silence preserved the moment while people stared anxiously about Then Jasper Nichols, as closest to the , leaned out from it once more and said, "Good Lord help me, but I’ll be damned"
Captain MacGruder was the second to pull himents from his pants "What is it, man?" he asked, even as he went to theto see for himself His motion startled the rest of the car into action One at a time, he was joined by everyone present, or at least those ere able to haul themselves up on the seats and lean their faces into the white outdoors
It wasn’t snowing here, on this side of Provo
The sun beat down from directly above, uncut or dih to preserve round to s ankles--with a crystalline crust on every surface, giving all of it a hter
Hands rose to foreheads, shading squinting eyes against the unexpected light
The captain said, "Is that the his eyes against the glare "It’s the Shenandoah They passed us by a ways, it looks like"
"Half a mile or more More, I think," he said
Mercy could see it then The back end of the Rebel vessel and the curve of its length on a track, h that it looked small
"They didn’t blow the tracks," she said "They could’ve blown the tracks, but they didn’t"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>