"Mr. Griscom," said Ralph, "you are badly hurt! You can't do anything more, for there's only one car left on the last track, right in the nest of the fire. Let me get somebody to help you where you can be attended to."
He placed a hand pleadingly on the engineer's arm. Old Griscom shook it off in his gruff giant way.
"What's that?" he asked.
He turned his face towards the fire. Ralph looked too, in sudden askance. A crowd surged towards two buildings, nearly consumed, between which lay a single car. The firemen who had been playing a hose just there dropped it, running for their lives.
"Get back!" yelled one of them, as he passed the engine, "or you're gone up. That's a powder car! We just found it out, and it's all ablaze!"
[CHAPTER VI--THE MASTER MECHANIC]
A man appearing to be a railway official shouted up an order to the haggard engineer as he rushed by.
"Get out of this--there's twenty tons of powder in that car!"
Griscom dashed his hand across his eyes. He seemed to clear them partially, and strained his gaze ahead and took in the meaning of the scene, if not all its vivid outlines, and muttered:
"If that stuff goes off, the whole yards are doomed."