Excited almost to the verge of joy he limped past the signal box in order to get away from its lights. If the thing was done at all it would have to be done in darkness. Presently he looked round, and with a sensation of downright terror, found that the lights of the signal box were no longer to be seen. Here the fog was quite thick again; whichever way he looked there was not a single object he could make out in the darkness. But under his bare feet he could feel the broad metals icy, smooth, inexorable.
"Now's your chance," said a gentle voice deep down in himself.
Instantly he lay full length in the six-foot way.
"Set your head on the line," said the voice.
He did as he was told. The sensation of the icy metal under his right ear was so horrible that his heart almost stopped inside him.
"Close your eyes," said the voice, and then it said a little more gently as if it knew that already he was half dead with fear, "Stay just as you are and you'll not know nothink about it."
"Don't move," said the voice. "Stay there and it'll not hurt you."
If he had had a God to pray to, he would have prayed.
The engine seemed a long time on the way. He daren't move hand or foot, he daren't stir a muscle of his body. But as the seconds passed an intense desire came upon him to change the position of his head. It felt so undefended sideways on. Surely it would be better if he turned it round so that....
"Don't move," the voice commanded him. "Keep just like that. Quite still."
He was bound to obey. The voice was stronger than he.
"Eyes shut, and you'll not know nothink."
It was as a mother would have spoken had he ever heard a mother speak.
... The engine was coming. He could hear it snorting and rattling in the distance. He simply daren't listen. He tried to imagine he was already dead. But a frightful crash suddenly broke in upon his brain, and then another, and then another ... he had never realized how much it took to...
"Fog signals," said the voice. "Keep just as you are ... eyes shut ... quite still ... quite still."
There it was, grunting and rattling.... Know nothink! ... there ... now...
Grunting, rattling, snorting, what a time it took! In spite of himself he opened his eyes, and found that he was still alive.