He left Vienna on a cold, cheerless day. The flower
shops were full of spring blooms, and the weekly organs of illustrated
humour were full of spring topics, but the skies were heavy with clouds
that looked like cotton-wool that has been kept over long in a shop
window.
"Snow comes," said the train official to the station officials; and they
agreed that snow was about to come. And it came, rapidly, plenteously.
The train had not been more than an hour on its journey when the cotton-
wool clouds commenced to dissolve in a blinding downpour of snowflakes.
The forest trees on either side of the line were speedily coated with a
heavy white mantle, the telegraph wires became thick glistening ropes,
the line itself was buried more and more completely under a carpeting of
snow, through which the not very powerful engine ploughed its way with
increasing difficulty. The Vienna-Fiume line is scarcely the best
equipped of the Austrian State railways, and Abbleway began to have
serious fears for a breakdown. The train had slowed down to a painful
and precarious crawl and presently came to a halt at a spot where the
drifting snow had accumulated in a formidable barrier. The engine made a
special effort and broke through the obstruction, but in the course of
another twenty minutes it was again held up. The process of breaking
through was renewed, and the train doggedly resumed its way, encountering
and surmounting fresh hindrances at frequent intervals.
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