“‘Oh! great God have mercy on us,’ he exclaimed, as he turned away.
“Harry placed his foot on the outer end of the longest bar of iron, then made a desperate leap forward, seized the child by the arm, and both went rolling down the steep side of the embankment. He made the leap when the engine was only about six feet from the child, and he must have made his calculations very accurately, for he only let one foot strike the ground between the rails, while the other struck the ground outside of the rails. The slightest miscalculation or the least mistake, would have been fatal to him as well as her for whom he made the gallant leap. At the base of the embankment there was a pond of muddy water, bordered with briars and broken rocks. Harry and the little girl landed in the middle of the pond, bruised and bleeding from many wounds. The engine came to a halt as soon as it struck the bridge, and the engineer leaped down to where Harry lay in the water and lifted him up in his arms. It was an affecting sight to see the man of iron nerve weeping like a child.
“‘My brave little hero,’ he exclaimed, as he pressed Harry’s brow to his lips, ‘are you hurt?’
“‘Not much sir, I believe, though my leg is broken,’ said Harry.
“Poor fellow! he fainted in the arms of the strong man who carried him up the embankment and placed him on the train. The little girl had a severe contusion on her temple, caused by falling against a sharp-cornered rock at the base of the embankment. She was also placed on the train, and then it was put in motion, and soon was at the station, and a surgeon sent for, while the wounded children were removed to a hotel near the depot. The mother of the little girl (a pale-faced, delicate little woman of great beauty) swooned and fell to the ground when she saw the bleeding child in my arms. The father of the child took her from me.
“‘In Heaven’s name pray tell me what has happened!’ said he, as he took his daughter from me.
“‘She is not seriously hurt, sir,’ said I, and then I told him what had occurred.
“Harry had regained consciousness before we reached the station, and when he saw how Lottie was weeping as she held his head in her lap, he smiled pleasantly. ‘Don’t be alarmed, Lottie dear, I am not seriously hurt--just one leg broken, that’s all. Wasn’t it lucky that I happened to be on the front of that engine? Is the little girl much hurt?’