Out For Business or Robert Frost's Strange Career. Stratemeyer Edward
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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."
"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."
"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 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 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.
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