Sam seized his gun, pushed by the motorman, and strolled along the track past the obstruction. As soon as he felt himself sheltered by the derailed car from the argus eye of the faculty, he jumped the wall, and in its shelter ran headlong for the curve round which the up car was expected.
CHAPTER XVIII
MR. ALSOP BARKS
Two minutes later a youth in khaki, armed with a gun, stopped the up car just around the curve beyond the power-house, called out a startled passenger, and let the car go on. Those who were curious enough to look back—including a shrewdly grinning conductor—saw the pair disappear over the fence into a clump of trees.
“What’s up?” demanded Duncan, as soon as his foot touched the ground.
“They’re going to transfer passengers at the power-house. Towle and Snow are there—” Sam stopped for breath; his run up the hill had winded him. “You’d have been caught like a rat in a trap.”
Duncan whistled, and gave vent to a variety of exclamations prompted by a variety of feelings. Sam cut into them abruptly.
“You can’t show yourself until after the car passes here. By that time the other one will have gone, and there isn’t another for an hour.”
“And some one is likely to be on that,” said Duncan, gravely.
“Yes, and on the one after. If you want me to, I’ll stay down and watch to see who’s aboard, and give you a signal. Or—”