A railway is laid along the top of the breakwater to carry stones and guns to the further end.  Papa told us that some years ago, while it was in the course of construction, he came to see it; that as he was looking towards the end he perceived an engine coming along.  He stepped on one side to avoid it, when, as it drew near, he observed the driver making a signal to him.  He had just time to spring on to a wooden platform at the edge, when another engine, coming from the opposite direction, passed over the spot on which he had been standing.  In an instant he would have been crushed to death.  "How grateful did I feel to God that I had been thus mercifully preserved!" he said.