|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 99
The track boss reflected.
"You see, Miss Warfield, this place is the beginning of an
up-grade, the engine was coming down a long grade toward it, so
when this train struck the first rails of the up-grade it struck
it just like you'd drive in a wedge, and the hundred-ton brute of
an engine jammed this rail out of alignment. That's all there is
to it. When the rail sprung the wheels went down on the ties on
that side and the train was ditched."
"It was a clean accident, then, you think?" said Marion.
"Sure, Miss Warfield," replied the man. "If anybody had tried to
move that rail out of alignment, he would have to disconnect it
at the other end, that is, take off the plate that joins it to
the next rail. That would leave the end of the rail clean, with
no broken plate. But the end of the rail is bent and the plate
is twisted off. We looked at that the first thing. Nobody could
twist that plate off. The engine did it when it left the track.
"You see, Miss Warfield, the weight of the engine, like a wedge,
simply forced one of these rails out of alignment. Don't you
understand how a hundred ton wedge driven against the track, at
the start of an upgrade, could do it?"
The old peasant woman stood behind the track boss. The thing was
a sort of awful game. She did not speak, but the vicissitudes of
the inquiry advanced her, or retired her, with the effect of
points, won or lost.
"I understand perfectly," replied Marion, "how the impact of the
heavy engine might drive both rails out of alignment, if they
offered an equal resistance, or one of them out if it offered a
less resistance. This is straight track. The wedge would go in
even. It should have spread the rails equally. That's the
probable thing. But instead it did the improbable thing; it
spread one. I hold the improbable thing always in question.
Human knowledge is built up on that postulate.
"True, a certain factor of difference in conditions must be
allowed, as I have said, but an excessive factor cannot be
allowed. We have got to find it, or discard human reason as an
implement for getting at the truth."
Again the big track boss smashed through the niceties of logic.
"These things happen all the time, Miss Warfield. You can't
figure it out."
"One ought to be able to determine it,"' replied the girl.
The track boss shook his head.
"We can't tell what made that rail give."
"Of course, we can tell," said Marion. "It gave because it was
weakened."
"But what weakened it?" replied the man. "You can't tell that?
The rail's sound."
"There could be only two causes," said Marion. "It was either
weakened by a natural agency or a human agency."
The track boss made an annoyed gesture, like a practical person
vexed with the refinements of a theorist.
"But how are you going to tell?"
"Now," said Marion, "there is always a point as you follow a
thing down, where the human design in it must appear, if there is
a human design in it. The human mind can falsify events within a
limited area. But if one keeps moving out, as from a center, he
will find somewhere this point at which intelligence is no longer
able to imitate the aspect of the result of natural forces . . .
I think we have reached it."
She paused and drove her query at the track boss.
"The spikes on the outside of this rail held it in place, did
they not?"
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|