CHAPTER VIII. PERIL.

Jones and Barlow, the two men who had been so ignominiously expelled from the train, picked themselves up, and with faces flaming with anger shook their fists at the train in impotent wrath.

"This is an outrage, Jones," said Barlow, the taller of the two.

"So it is," said Jones, rubbing his knee, which had received an abrasion from falling on a flinty stone.

"They don't know how to treat a gentleman."

"No, they don't. You're right, Barlow."

"I suppose the boy and that long-legged miner are laughing in their sleeves."

As he spoke, both turned their glances upon the car in which Robert and the miner were located, and saw both looking out of a car window. The miner's face wore a look of amusement and satisfaction, which was enough to anger the two adventurers.

[Pg 68]

"Good-by, boys!" he said. "You're leaving us in a hurry, but we won't forget you."

In reply, Jones, who was the more choleric of the two, shook his fist at the miner, but did not indulge himself in any remarks. His feelings were probably too deep for words.

"What shall we do, Barlow?" he asked.

"Foot it to the next station, I reckon. I'm used to walkin', aint you?"

"I've done a little of it in my time," said Jones, with a grin.

"Then we can take the next train that comes along. That cursed miner won't be on board, and we can be received as gentlemen."

"Say, have you got a clothes-brush, Barlow? My knees—that is the knees of my pants—are all over mud."

"So are mine. Yes, I believe I have, but don't let us repair damages here. They will be looking out of the car-windows and laughing at us."

"Go ahead, then. I'll follow."

They started in the direction in which the train was going. Two minutes later they fell in with a young Irish boy, who surveyed their dilapidated appearance with amusement.

"Say," he remarked, "have youse been racin' wid de train?"

[Pg 69]

"Why do you ask, boy?" inquired Barlow with lofty dignity.

"I take it all back. I guess you've been on your knees prayin'."

"Boy, don't you know how to address a gentleman?"

"Where's the gentleman?" inquired the youth, with a vacant look.

"Jones, chase that boy and give him a lesson."

Jones undertook to do so, but he was short and fat, and the boy easily eluded him. He climbed over a fence on one side of the railway, and began to make faces at the pair.

"What would you have done to me if you had caught me?" he asked in a mocking and derisive tone.

"Given you a first-class thrashing," growled Jones.

"Then I'm glad you didn't catch me. Say, I saw you get out of the train."

"Suppose you did?"

"You were kicked out. What had you been doin'?"

Angry as the two adventurers were at their humiliating treatment, their feeling of indignation was intensified by the boy's taunts. Jones was[Pg 70] about to make an angry retort, when Barlow stopped him.

"Don't mind the boy," he said. "We'd better be getting on."

They walked briskly till they had probably got a quarter of a mile on their way to the next station. Then they paused and looked back, for on the way they had passed the train.

"What's the matter with the train?" asked Barlow.

"Don't know. It's making quite a stop."

"I wish it would get wrecked."

This gave an idea to Jones.

"So I say. We'd get even with that miner, and the men that hustled us off the train. What do you say to wrecking it?"

"We can do it. See that switch?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"I'm an old switchman. Tended switch for three years on a Western road. All we'll have to do is to reverse that switch," pointing to one a hundred feet farther on, "and there'll be a smash."

Barlow's breath came quick. He was not as daring a rascal as his companion.

"Do you really mean it, Jones?" he said.

"Yes, I do."

[Pg 71]

"Suppose we get caught?"

"We won't get caught."

"Somebody may see us."

"There's no one around. Look and satisfy yourself."

"If you think it safe?"

"Of course it's safe. Besides, if there's a wreck, there'll be booty for us. I'd like to rifle the pockets of that miner."

The train had been detained at a signal tower by a telegram, and this allowed the two adventurers to arrange their plans for wrecking it. But on trying to move the switch, Jones found a difficulty. He had not the necessary appliances.

"Can't you move it?" asked Barlow.

"No."

"Then we must give up the plan."

"No, there's another way. Do you see that rock?"

He pointed to a square rock, weighing not far from a hundred pounds, by the side of the railroad.

"Yes, that'll do the business. But there's no time to lose. The train may come along at any moment. I don't know why it has been so delayed."

[Pg 72]

"Come along then, and help me move it. It is heavy."

The two rascals bent over and lifted the rock in concert.

They grumbled over the weight, neither of them being used to hard labor.

"I should think it weighed most half a ton," grumbled Barlow.

"Never mind. We will soon have it in position. Quick! I hear the train!"

The rumbling of the train could be heard at a considerable distance. The two scoundrels didn't trouble themselves about the possible, or probable consequences of their dastardly plot. They only thought of revenging themselves upon the men who had ejected them from the train, and they felt, besides, an animosity against Robert and his miner friend.

They thought themselves without a witness, but in this they were mistaken. The boy already mentioned, whom they had pursued ineffectually, had followed them at a distance, having a feeling of curiosity about them.

"I wonder what they're up to?" he soliloquized, as he watched them tampering with the switch. He could not quite understand the meaning of their movements. But when they took the[Pg 73] rock, and between them conveyed it to the railroad track, and put it in the way of the coming train, he understood.

"I believe the mean chaps want to wreck the train," he said to himself.

What should he do?

He bethought himself of calling out to them, and trying to prevent their plot. But he was sure they would pay no attention to him, and besides there was no time. He could already hear the thundering sound of the approaching train.

Tommy was on a bluff about fifteen feet above the roadbed. To descend the bank and run to meet the train would consume more time than he had at command.

"Oh, dear!" muttered Tommy. "There'll be a smash, and lots of people will be killed."

But there was one thing that neither Tommy nor the two scoundrels had seen. It was a cow that somehow or other had found its way through a gap in the fence from a pasture to the left, and was leisurely walking along the track, full in the path of the approaching train.

The engineer could not see the rock, for it was too small an object, but by great good luck he did see the cow.

With a tremendous effort, he stopped the engine[Pg 74] just in time. When the train halted, it was only ten feet away from the animal, who was looking with startled eyes at the coming train.

The shock of the sudden stop was such that the passengers started to their feet, and the engineer leaped from the engine.

By this time Tommy had descended the bank, and was standing only a few feet away.

"We have had a narrow escape," said the miner, wiping the perspiration from his brow.

"You have had two narrow escapes," said Tommy, pointing to the large rock which lay across one of the rails fifteen feet further on.

The engineer started, and seemed horror-struck.

"Who put that rock on the track?" he demanded sternly.