The Ranger Boys and Their Reward

by Claude A. LaBelle

This was just what he wanted. He could wait until he heard the approach of the train and then hide behind one of the sides of the bridge. As soon as the engine had passed under, he would only have to crawl over the side, and drop to the top of one of the cars as it passed under the bridge. Looking up, Phil estimated that there was only about two feet clearance between the top of a car and the bottom of the bridge.

This would make it a safe proposition to drop to the train, even though it was moving. Had it been anything but the slow Coldenham train, he knew such a feat would be impossible, for a swiftly moving express would have thrown him off almost as soon as he touched the top.

There was little to do now but wait until the train should approach. Phil wondered if the road was in constant use, for should a team or an automobile be passing as he attempted to board the train, his work would be for nothing.

This, however, was one chance that he would have to take.

It was a warm, drowsy afternoon, and but one team passed him as he sat on the wall that protected the bridge. He whiled away the time by finding a stick of soft wood, which he whittled into odd shapes, for Phil was a wizard with his penknife, and a friend to all the children in his home town, as they were constantly importuning him to carve dolls for them or whittle a ball inside of a little cage. Phil, who loved the work for an idle moment, seldom refused them.

At last he heard the sound of the train approaching, and quickly dropped to cover behind the wall. The train came along at a fair rate of speed, wheezing and puffing at every revolution of the wheels.

Phil’s heart beat rapidly, for this was the crucial moment. If a team or auto should happen to pass just as he was in the act of dropping to the train, there was no knowing what might happen, and he did not want anyone to have the knowledge that he had gone on this mission.

He strained his ears to catch the sound of the approach of any vehicle, but the noise of the oncoming train drowned out all other sounds.

Phil heard the engine pass under the bridge, and then hastily clambered up over the wall, and giving a quick look in either direction, and fortunately seeing nothing, lowered himself and dropped to the roof of a car about midway in the string. He hit the roof with a thud that almost knocked the breath from him as his feet hit the top.

However, he retained his presence of mind, and dropped quickly to his hands and knees and grasped the running board that is on the top of all freight cars. The momentum of the moving train was greater than he thought it would be, and he was afraid for a moment that he was going to be thrown off after all.