Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/54

38 ran we heard our mine explode behind us, and were gratified to find that it was not without effect, for a boiler-plate and funnel-head fell unpleasantly near us a moment later.

Reaching the bridge head we were surprised to see a woman's figure at the other end making frantic signs to us to go back. What could this mean? The engines were still pursuing, and I was about to proceed in spite of the warning figure when Gell touched my arm—"It is Aurelia," he said.

My girl Aurelia, though I say it, was one of a thousand. I had not a very high opinion of the generality of her sex, or of my own either for that matter, in sudden crises of danger, but I never knew her lose her courage or coolness of head, and felt sure that if she signed me back it was for some good and sufficient reason, though what I could not guess. So I paused.

Well for me that I did so. For with a crash and a roar the central portion of the bridge between us and her suddenly mounted to the sky in a cloud of smoke and flame. The poltroons of Jefferson City had filled up the measure of their cowardice. Too