Louder and louder roared the train. It was but a mile distant now, and the road was straight.
Nell raised her head, and resting on her hands gazed down the track where, in the distance, gleamed the light of the locomotive.
"God help me!" moaned the poor girl. Then she tried to throw herself from the track, but she could not. Her limbs were numb, and refused to obey her will.
A wild laugh rang out on the moonlit air.
Madge Scarlet sprang up and glared through the bushes at her victim with maniacal delight.
"Ha' ha! You cannot escape! Them pretty limbs'll be crushed and torn asunder! the white flesh cut and gashed, and that delicate body made a horrid mass of blood and mangled fragments! THEN I will present them to you, Dyke Darrel. Ho! ho!"
Her voice was raised to a high pitch now, and even reached the ears of the startled Nell.
No help, no hope!
On thundered the iron monster.
On and on till the eye of the engineer catches sight of something on the track—SOMETHING!