For an instant Dockbridge had been as startled as the others. Then it came to him in one inspired moment. Peggy was on the engine! A series of whistles came across the tender.
"Toot—toot—toot! Toot—toot—toot! Toot—toot—toot! Toot—toot!"—the old Harvard cheer that Peggy had heard echoing across the foot-ball field a hundred times.
Of course! She was going to fetch them out of Canada, and then to thunder with all the judges of the Dominion! He began to laugh hysterically. On and on, faster and faster, rushed the train. The pallid faces of the passengers and crew stared strangely out of the blue haze. Breathless, each man struggled to keep his footing, momentarily expecting to be dashed into eternity. The minutes dragged as hours, until at last, from somewhere in the rear of the train, the fireman returned with a wrench, and throwing his whole weight upon the padlock, quickly snapped its staples. The door burst open, sending him flying headlong. Through the car poured a furious gust of wind and snow, blinding, suffocating, and into the midst of this jumped the engineer, and, clambering desperately upon the tender, disappeared.
Perhaps it was the dimness of the light, but Andrews had suddenly begun to look white and old.
At the same moment a red light flashed by alongside the track and the train roared across a suspension bridge without slackening speed.
"Red River!" gasped the fireman, clambering to his feet.
The blood leaped in Jack's veins. Red River! Then they were across the line. Peggy had won! God bless her! With a triumphant glance at the cowering Andrews, he turned upon the frightened crowd.
"You can't beat the Yankee girl!" he shouted. "Judge, you're right. We've adjourned court, and are taking the prisoner with us—into the United States!"
Transcriber's Note: In the original edition, the title of each story appeared twice, first on a page by itself in all capitals, followed by a blank page, and then on the first page of the story in title case. These duplicate titles have been deleted. The first title for "The Extraordinary Adventure of the Baron de Ville" appeared in a shortened form as "THE BARON DE VILLE". In the HTML version of this text, page numbers have been included only on those pages which originally contained them, not on blank pages or title pages.