It was some time after the tooting signal that the conductor put in an appearance. He did not come along the side track. That was fairly impossible, for it would have been sheer burrow progress. He came over the top of the next car to the tender, a blind baggage, and as he climbed over the coal in the tender his lantern smashed and he presented a pale and anxious face to the view of the cab crew.
“What’s the prospects?” he inquired in a discouraged tone.
“It looks like an all-night lay-over,” reported Ralph.
“There’s nothing ahead, of course,” said the conductor calculatingly. “There’s a freight due on the in track. Behind us a freight was to come, 257 provided No. 11 put out from Stanley Junction to-night.”
“Which I doubt,” said Fogg.
“If we could back to Vernon we’d be in better touch with something civilized,” went on the conductor. “The wires are all down here.”
“I can try it,” replied Ralph, “but without a pilot the rear car will soon come to a bump.”
“Give her a show, anyway,” suggested the conductor.
Two minutes’ effort resulted in a dead stop. The young engineer knew his business well enough to understand that they were in danger of running the train off the track.
“I’ll send a signal back, if a man can get back,” decided the conductor.