The entire train seemed deserted.

Helpless, bereft of its engine, a huge, decapitated monster it lay, half-way around a curve, rained upon, abandoned.
There was more fear in this last condition of affairs, more terror in the idea of this prolonged line of sleepers, with their nickelled fittings, their plate glass, their upholstery, vestibules, and the like, loaded down with people, lost and forgotten in the night and the rain, than there had been when the actual danger threatened.
What was to become of them now?
Who was there to help them?
Their engine was gone; they were helpless.

What next was to happen?
Nobody came near the car.

Even the porter had disappeared.

The wait seemed endless, and the persistent snoring of the whiskered gentleman rasped the nerves like the scrape of a file.
"Well, how long are we going to stick here now ?" began one of the drummers.