Note.—­The legend further relates that on the discovery of the concealed arrow Tell was again put in chains.  Gesler then embarked for another place, taking Tell with him.  A storm overtook them, and Tell was released to steer the boat.  In passing a certain point of land now known as “Tell’s Rock” or “Leap,” Tell leaped ashore and escaped:  then going to a point where he knew the boat must land, he lay concealed until it arrived, when he shot Gesler through the heart.

LXIX.  THE CRAZY ENGINEER.

1.  My train left Dantzic in the morning generally about eight o’clock; but once a week we had to wait for the arrival of the steamer from Stockholm.  It was the morning of the steamer’s arrival that I came down from the hotel, and found that my engineer had been so seriously injured that he could not perform his work.  I went immediately to the engine house to procure another engineer, for I supposed there were three or four in reserve there, but I was disappointed.

2.  I heard the puffing of the steamer, and the passengers would be on hand in fifteen minutes.  I ran to the guards and asked them if they knew where there was an engineer, but they did not.  I then went to the firemen and asked them if anyone of them felt competent to run the engine to Bromberg.  No one dared to attempt it.  The distance was nearly one hundred miles.  What was to be done?

3.  The steamer stopped at the wharf, and those who were going on by rail came flocking to the station.  They had eaten breakfast on board the boat, and were all ready for a fresh start.  The train was in readiness in the long station house, and the engine was steaming and puffing away impatiently in the distant firing house.

4.  It was past nine o’clock.  “Come, why don’t we start?” growled an old, fat Swede, who had been watching me narrowly for the last fifteen minutes.  And upon this there was a general chorus of anxious inquiry, which soon settled to downright murmuring.  At this juncture some one touched me on the elbow.  I turned, and saw a stranger by my side.  I thought that he was going to remonstrate with me for my backwardness.  In fact, I began to have strong temptations to pull off my uniform, for every anxious eye was fixed upon the glaring badges which marked me as the chief officer of the train.

5.  However, this stranger was a middle-aged man, tall and stout, with a face of great energy and intelligence.  His eye was black and brilliant,—­so brilliant that I could not gaze steadily into it, though I tried; and his lips, which were very thin, seemed more like polished marble than human flesh.  His dress was black throughout, and not only set with exact nicety, but was scrupulously clean and neat.