Chasing an Iron Horse Part 14

"Heard anything from the pa.s.senger yet?" asked George, as he walked unconcernedly into the ticket office.

"Just wait a second," said the man, his right hand playing on the board; "I'm telegraphing up the line to Calhoun to find out where she is. The wires aren't working to the south, somehow, but they're all right to the north."

Click, click, went the instrument. George returned leisurely to the doorway of the waiting-room. He was just in time to hear the young soldier say to his friend: "If these fellows try to get away from here, just let 'em go. I'll send a telegram up the road giving warning that they are coming, and should be stopped as a suspicious party. If they don't find themselves in hot water by the time they get to Dalton I'm a bigger fool than I think I am."

George stood stock still. Here was danger indeed! He knew that to send a telegram up the road would be but the work of a minute; it could go over the wires to the north before the "special" had pulled away from Adairsville.

At this moment the station-agent came out of his office. "The pa.s.senger is behind time," he said, and he ran quickly across the tracks to speak to Andrews, who was looking anxiously out from the cab of "The General."

"It's now or never," thought George. He turned back into the deserted waiting-room, entered the ticket-office, and pulled from the belt under his inner coat a large revolver--the weapon which he carried in case self-defense became necessary. Taking the barrel of the revolver, he tried to pry up the telegraphic keyboard from the table to which it was attached. But he found this impossible to accomplish; he could secure no leverage on the instrument. He was not to be thwarted, however; so changing his tactics, he took the barrel in his hand and began to rain heavy blows upon the keys, with the b.u.t.t end. In less time than it takes to describe the episode, the instrument had been rendered totally useless.

"There," he said to himself, with the air of a conqueror, "it will take time to repair that damage, or to send a telegram." He was about to leave the office when he discovered a portable battery under the table. It was an instrument that could be attached to a wire, in case of emergency.

George hastily picked it up, and hurried into the waiting-room. It would never do to leave this battery behind in the office; but how could he take it away without being caught in the act? His eyes wandered here and there, until they rested upon the stove. There was no fire in it. An inspiration came to him. He opened the iron door, which was large, and threw the battery into the stove. Then he closed the door, and sauntered carelessly out to the platform. The soldier and his friend were now standing at some distance from the station, on a sidewalk in front of a grocery store. They were engaged in earnest conversation. Over on the side-track, where "The General" stood, the station-agent was talking to Andrews. George joined his leader, and sprang into the cab.

"From what I hear," said Andrews, "the pa.s.senger train is so much behind time that if I make fast time I can get to Calhoun before it arrives there, and wait on a siding for it to pa.s.s us."

"Then why don't you move on," urged George, who happened to know how desirable it was to get away, but dared not drop any hint to his leader in the presence of the station-agent.

"You're taking a risk," said the station-agent. "You may strike the train before you reach Calhoun." He was evidently not suspicious, but he feared an accident.

"If I meet the train before we reach Calhoun," cried Andrews, striking his fist against the window-ledge of the cab, "why then she must back till she gets a side-track, and then we will pa.s.s her."

He turned and looked at his engineer and the a.s.sistant.

"Are you ready to go, boys?" he asked. They quickly nodded a.s.sent; they longed to be off again.

"Then go ahead!" ordered Andrews. "A government special must not be detained by any other train on the road!"

"The General" was away once more. George began to explain to Andrews what he had heard at the station, and how he had disabled the telegraph.

"You're a brick!" cried the leader, patting the boy approvingly on the shoulder; "and you have saved us from another sc.r.a.pe. But 'tis better to provide against any repairing of the telegraph--and the sooner we cut a wire and obstruct the track, the better for us."

Thus it happened that before the train had gone more than three miles "The General" was stopped, more wires were cut, and several cross-ties were thrown on the track in the rear. Then the train dashed on, this time at a terrific speed. Andrews hoped to reach Calhoun, seven miles away, before the pa.s.senger should arrive there. It was all that George could do to keep his balance, particularly when he was called upon to feed the engine fire with wood from the tender. Once Waggie, who showed a sudden disposition to see what was going on around him, and tried to crawl out from his master's pocket, came very near being hurled out of the engine. Curves and up grades seemed all alike to "The General"; the n.o.ble steed never slackened its pace for an instant. The engineer was keeping his eyes on a point way up the line, so that he might slow up if he saw any sign of the pa.s.senger; the a.s.sistant sounded the whistle so incessantly that George thought his head would split from the noise. Once, at a road crossing, they whirled by a farm wagon containing four men. The boy had a vision of four mouths opened very wide. In a second wagon and occupants were left far behind.

In a s.p.a.ce of time which seemed incredibly short Calhoun was reached. Down went the brakes and "The General" slid into the station to find directly in front, on the same track, the long-expected pa.s.senger train.

"There she is!" cried Andrews; "and not before it's time!"

It was only by the most strenuous efforts that the engineer could keep "The General" from colliding with the locomotive of the opposing train.

When he brought his obedient iron-horse to a standstill there was only the distance of a foot between the cowcatchers of the two engines. The engineer of the pa.s.senger train leaned from his cab and began to indulge in impolite language. "What d'ye mean," he shouted, "by trying to run me down?" And he added some expressions which would not have pa.s.sed muster in cultivated society.

"Clear the road! Clear the road!" roared Andrews. "This powder train must go through to General Beauregard at once! We can't stay here a minute!"

These words acted like a charm. The pa.s.senger train was backed to a siding, and "The General" and its burden were soon running out of Calhoun.

"No more trains!" said Andrews. His voice was husky; the perspiration was streaming from his face. "Now for a little bridge burning. There's a bridge a short distance up the road, across the Oostenaula River, where we can begin the real business of the day. But before we get to it let us stop 'The General' and see what condition he is in."

"He has behaved like a gentleman, so far," said the engineer. "He must be in sympathy with us Northerners."

"Slow up!" ordered Andrews. "The old fellow is beginning to wheeze a little bit; I can tell that he needs oiling."

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.