STEALING A LOCOMOTIVE
Jo's plan was communicated to Rob in a few breathless words as the lads dashed up the track towards the head of the train. The crowd of soldiers, not yet understanding that they were fugitives, and awed by the sight of Jo's uniform, parted before them, only stupidly wondering at their haste. Rob's mind instantly seized the possibilities of Jo's suggestion, and as they ran he gasped:
"You get aboard, Jo, while I cut it loose. Persuade the driver to start her. Never mind me. I'll climb aboard somehow."
Even as he spoke, Rob turned in between the locomotive and the foremost car, which already was filled with Chinese craning their necks over the side to see what was going on. Fortunately, there were no patent couplers to be dealt with, and no pneumatic tubes, for on this primitive train brakes were applied by hand, while the connections were simple link-and-pin affairs that any one could understand. Rob pulled the pin and scrambled across the bumpers to the opposite side of the train. As he did so his flowing priestly robe caught and was torn from his shoulders, leaving him fully revealed in unmistakable European costume.
Instantly there arose a yell of "Fan kwei!" from the soldiers in the car above him, but a sudden shot from his pistol cut it short and sent those who were uttering it tumbling over backward in pell-mell consternation.
The locomotive already was moving as Rob ran forward and sprang into the cab, where he was just in time to break up a most startling tableau. The Chinese engine-driver, with hand on the open throttle, was cowering beneath the threatening muzzle of Jo's cocked revolver. The latter's back was turned, and behind him, with an uplifted bar of iron, crept the overlooked fireman. In another instant the blow would have fallen, and the whole course of Chinese history might have been changed; but, as it was about to descend, Rob caught the unsuspecting man by his convenient pig-tail and jerked him violently backward, while the murderous bar clattered to the iron floor of the cab. The next moment Rob had bundled the fireman overboard, and the locomotive sprang forward as though relieved of a clogging weight.
A tremendous clamor of yells and shooting rose from behind, while half a dozen bullets splintered the wood-work and shivered the glass of the cab; but no one was hurt, and no one minded the fusillade except the poor engine-driver, who was scared almost white. Rob sprang on top of the coal in the tender and waved his pistol defiantly above his head; at the same time shouting derisive farewells to the baffled soldiers, many of whom were hopelessly running after the vanishing locomotive. He remained there until these dwindled to the size of distracted ants wandering aimlessly about a ruined hill, and then he returned to the cab, where Jo still remained on guard.
"I say, old man," cried the young American, speaking loudly to make himself heard above the roar and rattle of the on-rushing engine, "this beats anything I've struck in China yet. Isn't it the greatest bit of luck in the world? and isn't it fun running off with a locomotive? I never before stole anything worth speaking of, and I'm glad my first burglary is something worth while. I don't suppose it comes under the head of burglary, though. Perhaps we'd be called sneak thieves, only I hardly like the sound of that, either. How would highwaymen do, or stage robbers, or land pirates. That's it, Jo; we are land pirates who have just captured a ship and made her crew walk the plank, and now—"
"I'm hungry," interrupted the young Chinese, who, never having read any pirate stories, didn't know what his companion was talking about, "and thirsty," he added, looking longingly at the faucet of the tender's water-tank.
"So am I," shouted back Rob. "Make your slave there slow down a bit, for we're in no hurry anyhow, and I'll get you a drink."
As the speed with which they had started began to slacken, Rob suddenly added:
"Great Scott! There's another thing I hadn't thought of. Stop her, quick, Jo! We've got to cut that telegraph-wire, or they'll run us off the track at the first station. What a chucklehead I am!"
Before the locomotive had come to a stand-still the active young fellow was off and was swarming up a short, iron telegraph-pole near the track. Thus it was owing to his prompt action that a hurry message at that moment clicking into the Ting-Chow station, a few miles ahead, was interrupted after the words, "Look out for engine; open—" Probably the sender at Hsu River would have added, "derailing switch," and then proceeded to give enlightening particulars of what had happened, if he had been allowed the opportunity; but he was not, and the Ting-Chow operator was left to think what he pleased. The latter, however, had been warned that for some unknown reason an engine might be expected from the south, so he side-tracked and held a train of empty cars that was just about to proceed in that direction. Thus he left an open track for our friends, and saved them an awkward if not disastrous meeting.
Without knowing whether he had cut the wire in time to prevent mischief or not, Rob returned to the locomotive, got a big, satisfying drink of water from the tank, chucked a lot of coal into the furnace, assumed a new disguise in shape of the cap, jumper, and overalls of the engine-driver, which he calmly appropriated to his own use; and as the great, swaying machine again sped forward over the shining rails he reopened conversation with his comrade.
"How far is the line open?" he asked.
"To Pao-Ting-Fu, at any rate," replied Jo, "and perhaps some distance beyond."
"That's the worst place between here and Pekin, isn't it?"
"Yes; the Boxers are in complete control of the city, and more foreigners have been killed there than at any other point in this province."
"Then it won't be good for our health to stop there too long."
"I should think not!"
"How far is it from Pao-Ting-Fu to Pekin?"
"About three hundred li."
"That's about a hundred miles—three or four days if we have to walk it, two days if we can steal a couple of ponies, and less than half a day if we only could carry this old rattle-trap the whole distance," mused Rob. Then, again speaking to Jo, he said:
"Ask your friend what's wrong with the road beyond Pao-Ting-Fu?"
Jo did as requested, and after a short conversation with the frightened engine-driver reported that two bridges had been destroyed, one at Ting Shing, about half-way between Pao-Ting-Fu and Pekin, and the other at Lu Kow, only a few miles from the capital.
"The first would be enough to stop us," said Rob, gloomily. "What other damage has been done?"
"He says not much, only a rail torn up here and there."
"Well," said Rob, "we might as well play this game for all it is worth; so, suppose we make the operator at the next station telegraph for a car with a dozen or so of rails on it, and a gang of track-layers, to be ready for us at Pao-Ting-Fu. Sign the message with the biggest name you can think of in this part of the country; say it is a matter of life or death to the Emperor himself for this engine to get as near Pekin as possible in the shortest possible time. It will be an awful bluff, of course, but bluffs sometimes work when you least expect them to. At any rate, we won't lose anything by trying. Hello! There's a station now, and a train headed this way on the siding. Lucky for us that it waited here, for there's apt to be trouble when two trains meet on a single track. I hope it doesn't mean, though, that they have heard of our coming. You run in and do your best with the telegraph man, while I stay here and keep this chap from getting busy. Better tell the agent, or whatever you call him, to rush that train out in a hurry, so its hands won't come rubbering round us for news. See if you can't pick up something to eat, too, for I am starving. We'll run up and take in water from that tank while you are gone. I'll make our friend here sabe somehow what I want him to do."
Rob's bluff worked to perfection. The waiting train pulled out the moment they had passed the siding switch, and went on its southward way without carrying a suspicion of anything having gone wrong. Rob got his tank full of water without trouble, and had hardly done so when Jo reappeared, hurrying towards the locomotive. He was followed by a boy bearing a basket full of cooked rice and Chinese cakes. The young officer had ordered the few employés of the station about with such a lordly air that they had obeyed him without question.
"Did they know we were coming?" asked Rob, as the engine again gathered headway.
"Yes," replied Jo. "They had received part of a message, telling them to look out for us. Then it was cut off, and they were a good deal troubled at not hearing a word from the south since."
"Good!" cried Rob. "We cut the wire just in time then."
"Yes. I told them I saw somebody destroying the line, and said I thought he was a Boxer."
"So I am," laughed Rob, munching a Chinese sweetcake as he spoke. "But how about the message to Pao-Ting?"
"Oh, he sent it off all right. That is, I suppose he did. Anyhow, he seemed a good deal impressed by the name I signed to it."
"What name was it?"
"Yu-Hsien."
"What! The governor of Shan-Si! The big man of all the Boxers! You didn't have the cheek!"
"I did, though," declared Jo, stoutly; "and if it don't get us what we want at Pao-Ting, there isn't another name in all China that would."
They were barely out of sight of the station before they came to a bridge across a small river. Here, as the telegraph-line was strung on it within easy reach, the locomotive was brought to a stand-still, while Rob again tried his hand at wire-cutting. Jo leaned from the cab to watch him, thus relaxing for a minute his close watch of their useful prisoner.
As Rob came back, calling out: "Let her go again, I'm aboard," Jo turned to give the necessary order, only to discover to his consternation that the engine-driver was nowhere in sight. In vain did they search through the cab and its tender, in the water-tanks, and even under the coal. In vain did they look up and down the track, at the bridge on both sides, even staring down into the water twenty feet below them. The man had disappeared, so far as they could discover, as absolutely as though the ground had opened and swallowed him.
"Well," remarked Rob, in a melancholy tone, "that beats anything I ever experienced. We certainly have got the old wagon to ourselves now, and the question is, what shall we do with it?"
"I say run it," replied Jo. "I've watched him until I know how to start and stop, and how to go slow or fast. I'll do that part if you will keep up the fire, and I don't believe there is anything else to be looked out for."
"All right," agreed Rob, "go ahead. I don't like it, and I expect we shall come to grief; but I can stand it if you can."