A firefly in the dark

To make sure the leopard had gone, they walked the whole length of the tunnel. Back at the entrance, "the rails were beginning to hum". The train was coming!

"Suraj put his hand to one of the rails and felt its tremor. And then the engine came round the bend, hissing at them, scattering sparks into the darkness, defying the jungle. It charged straight at the tunnel, and into it, thundering past Suraj like the beautiful dragon of his dreams."

"And when it had gone, the silence returned and the forest seemed to breathe, to live again. Only the rails still trembled."

Then the story jumps: "They trembled again to the passing of the same train, almost a week later, when Suraj and his father were both travelling in it."

His father was doing his accounts in a notebook. He was going to Delhi on business and took Suraj along: "I don't know where he gets to most of the time. It's time he learnt something about my business." Suraj sat at an open window, staring into the dark.

He heard the train cross a small bridge; the tunnel must be near. It was too dark to see the hut. He strained his eyes, and then, just as the engine whistled, Suraj saw the lamp. He couldn't see Sunder Singh, but he saw the lamp, and he knew his friend was out there.

The train went through the tunnel and out across the plains. Suraj thought of the lonely watchman "who would always remain a firefly for those travelling thousands as he lit up the darkness for steam engines and leopards".

Why a firefly? A small light in a great dark, seen for a moment by thousands who'll never know whose it is, yet keeping engines and leopards safe.