But fortune favored him, and he kept his grip, although he scratched his hands severely in so doing.
The train chugged on its way, and Phil was content to lie on the top of the car for awhile and get a breathing spell. He had been told that after the train was about five miles out of the town, it passed a long strip of woodland that reached almost to Coldenham. Phil thought it wiser not to attempt to get near the engine until they had reached these woods, and also he knew that lying there on the top of the car, he might attract some attention from a chance passerby.
With this thought in mind, he began to edge along toward one end of the car. Reaching his objective, he found the ladder and crawled down between the two freight cars, and clinging to the ladder, with his feet braced on the narrow ledge over the coupling, maintained a safe but uncomfortable position.
Suddenly the train began to slow down perceptibly, and he wondered whether or not he had been seen, and the engineer was coming back to investigate.
In that case there would be only one thing to do, and that was cut and run, taking refuge among the trees, for he had seen that the train had entered the woodland.
Phil risked taking a look by peering out around the car’s side, and what he saw surprised him sharply, although he was prepared for anything that might happen.
The train had come almost to a stop, and he saw the engineer leap down from his steps on the cab and stretch out a helping hand to someone that darted at that moment out of the woods.
The person that the engineer helped aboard was none other than Simmons, the postal inspector!
“Aha,” thought Phil to himself. “I am beginning to think I am on a warm trail. Now to get up towards the cab and see what this is all about.”
There was every chance that he would be seen as he got near to the cab, but at that moment Nature came to his aid. The sky darkened. Great black clouds rolled across the dome of the world, and it became almost as dark as dusk. It was one of those sudden summer storms, and that, and the fact that they were passing through the forest, made it just a shade lighter than night.