Part 14 (2/2)

Obedient to the command, the engineer brought ”The General” to a halt. As the men came running from the baggage car, Andrews ordered them to take up another rail.

”It's good exercise, boys,” he laughed, ”even if it may not be actually necessary.”

Then he helped his engineers to inspect ”The General.” The engine was still in excellent condition, although the wood and water were running a little low. It received a quick oiling, while George climbed up a telegraph pole and severed a wire in the manner heretofore described.

Eight of the party were pulling at a rail, one end of which was loose and the other still fastened to the cross-ties by spikes.

Suddenly, away to the southward, came the whistle of an engine. Had a thunderbolt descended upon the men, the effect could not have been more startling. The workers at the rail tore it away from the track, in their wild excitement, and, losing their balance, fell headlong down the side of the embankment on which they had been standing. They were up again the next instant, unhurt, but eager to know the meaning of the whistle.

Was there an engine in pursuit? Andrews looked down the track.

”See!” he cried.

There _was_ something to gaze at. Less than a mile away a large locomotive, which was reversed so that the tender came first, was running rapidly up the line, each instant approaching nearer and nearer to the fugitives. In the tender stood men who seemed to be armed with muskets.

”They are after us,” said Andrews. ”There's no doubt about it.” He was very calm now; he spoke as if he were discussing the most commonplace matter in the world.

His companions crowded around him.

”Let us stand and fight them!” cried Watson.

”Yes,” urged Jenks, who had forgotten all about his sore back; ”we can make a stand here!”

Andrews shook his head. ”Better go on, boys,” he answered. ”We have taken out this rail, and that will delay them. In the meantime we can go on to the Oostenaula bridge and burn it.”

There was no time for discussion. The men yielded their usual a.s.sent to the orders of their chief. They quickly scrambled back into the train, to their respective posts, and Andrews gave the signal for departure.

”Push the engine for all it's worth!” he commanded; ”we must make the bridge before the enemy are on us.” The engineer set ”The General” going at a rattling pace.

”How on earth could we be pursued, after the way we cut the wires along the line,” muttered the leader. ”Can the enemy have telegraphed from Big Shanty to Kingston by some circuitous route? I don't understand.”

”Are you making full speed?” he asked the engineer, a second later.

”The old horse is doing his best,” answered the man, ”but the wood is getting precious low.”

”George, pour some engine oil into the furnace.”

The boy seized the oil can, and obeyed the order. The speed of ”The General” increased; the engine seemed to spring forward like a horse to which the spur has been applied.

”That's better,” said Andrews. ”Now if we can only burn that bridge before the enemy are up to us, there is still a chance for success--and life!”

His voice sank almost to a whisper as he uttered the last word. With a strange, indescribable sensation, George suddenly realized how near they all were to disaster, even to death. He thought of his father, and then he thought of Waggie, and wondered what was to become of the little dog. The boy was cool; he had no sense of fear; it seemed as if he were figuring in some curious dream.

Suddenly Andrews left the engine, lurched into the tender, and began to climb out of it, and thence to the platform of the first baggage car.

George looked back at him in dread; surely the leader would be hurled from the flying train and killed. But he reached the car in safety and opened the door. He shouted out an order which George could not hear, so great was the rattle of the train; then he made his way, with the ease of a sure-footed chamois, back to ”The General.” He had ordered the men in the car to split up part of its sides for kindling-wood. By the use of the cross-ties, which they had picked up along the road, they battered down some of the planking of the walls, and quickly reduced it to smaller pieces. It was a thrilling sight. The men worked as they had never worked before. It was at the imminent risk of falling out, however, and as the train swung along over the track it seemed a miracle that none of them went flying through the open sides of the now devastated car.

On rushed ”The General.” As it turned a curve George, who was now in the tender, glanced back to his right and saw--the pursuing engine less than a mile behind.

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