Smoke was pouring from the ends of the shed as they looked back. And across the bend, a mile behind them, came the Texas!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE END OF THE RACE
Fuller had stopped at Green's Station and at Tilton for wood and water; at Dalton he paused for a moment to shunt the two freight cars which Andrews had dropped. The telegraph operator who had been dragged into the chase at Calhoun ran to the station and pounced upon a telegraph key. Chattanooga answered him and he hammered out half of the message; then the wire "went dead." Andrews had broken the lines. But half of the message was enough to warn Chattanooga. The Commander of the Confederate troops rushed his men out to block the tracks against the raiders.
Fuller, relieved of the two box-cars, ordered the Texas ahead, and they swung out from the Dalton station.
"How about the tunnel?" Murphy asked.
Fuller thought for a moment. "We'll go straight through," he answered.
"You don't think that they'll drop that last box-car there?" asked Murphy.
"We'll have to take the risk. A minute's delay will be enough for them to destroy the bridge."
Murphy nodded and climbed up beside Fuller on the edge of the tender. Both of them realized that they would be in the very center of the wreck if Andrews had abandoned his last freight car in the tunnel. Yet they sat there, coolly and indifferently, awaiting whatever might come of the risk they were taking.