“Where?”
“Down in the valley.”
“Why, there’s a fire there, too!”
“Yes. And the fire guard is out already to try to put it out. But this is something else. A train has been derailed, and the girl says all railroad dicks are supposed to get down there in a hurry. That is why I took the chance of stopping the Midnight Flyer,” concluded Haley.
CHAPTER XXIV
TERRIBLE NEWS
“What train is off the iron?” asked Ralph quickly. “Anything ahead of us? Will we be held up?”
That was his first consideration. To think of the Flyer’s schedule as being of the first importance had become an obsession with him.
“I didn’t get any details,” said Haley, over the engineer’s shoulder. “I don’t even know whether the wreck is this side or the other side of the burning woods. But somehow I’ve got to get there. Adair’s orders.”
“Let’s see,” ruminated Ralph, “there is Sixty-four that takes the siding at Cole’s Station to let us pass. Hold on! She hasn’t much more than left Shadow Valley. The only other west-bound train in our way right now is the passenger accommodation that pulls into Oxford just ahead of us. Number Fifty-two. Think it may be her, Haley?”
Haley had caught most of what the engineer said. He shook his head.