The Train From Rhodesia

“The train came out of the red horizon and bore down towards them over the single straight track.”

The opening sentence in the story sets the mood. The train appearing out of nowhere, with no explanation, gives a feeling of immediacy and puts the reader in the position of the waiting villagers at the station. At the same time, the unexplained “them”—which refers to these villagers—throws the reader off balance.

“Creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping, the train filled the station.” 

The train in the story is often described in language that suggests a living creature rather than a machine. The verbs in this sentence suggest discomfort as if the train’s great size and power is a burden and paradoxically make it vulnerable.

“Between its vandyke teeth, in the mouth opened in a roar too terrible to be heard, it had a black tongue.” 

The carved lion is described as both winsome and sinister. It has a sweet ruff of fur around its neck and is also beautifully carved. Yet details such as the “black tongue” and the soundless roar give the carved lion a disturbing force and make it seem closer to a work of art than to an ornament.