“All aboard!” called out the conductor from the end of the train.
Ralph leaped to his seat and seized the lever. The supervisor followed him into the cab. You should have seen the eyes of the two firemen!
Supervisor Hopkins was certainly shaking. Out of the corner of his eye Ralph watched those long, lean, red hands twitching nervously.
“Maybe he has been under this pressure all the time,” Ralph considered. “It might be. He is as close-mouthed as a clam. Anybody can see that. Mr. Barton Hopkins would never confide in any person as long as he could keep his self-control. My gracious! I never saw him so broken up.”
While Ralph was thinking these thoughts he was speeding up the great eight-wheeler. The train, gaining on its pace with each revolution of the drivers, left the Rockton yard behind. It whirled up the small slope beyond, and then the searchlight, like a bright index finger, pointed the way into the black cavern of the cloudy night.
Suddenly the young engineer realized that Mr. Hopkins’ fingers were quiet. He sat on the bench without fidgeting as he had at first. Ralph could even sense that the man breathed regularly.
He turned in some surprise to look into Barton Hopkins’ face. What had changed him in this brief time? The supervisor’s gaze was fixed upon Ralph’s left hand, the hand which rested all the time on the throttle.
Faster and faster the train sped on. As he had promised, the young fellow was sending the Midnight Flyer on at the best pace he could compass. Never during the time he had handled the train had he made better time.
On and on they rushed, the wheels drumming over the rail-joints with a rhythm of sound that could only be compared to faint rifle-fire. Again and again the whistle sent its warning through the night. They rushed past little stations and parti-colored switch targets as though they were merely painted upon the backdrop of the night.
Now and then a white flash told Ralph that Adair’s guards were still on duty. “All’s well” they signaled, and he dared keep the heavy train at top speed over stretches of road which ordinarily would call for more cautious driving.