There followed a sudden jolt, a deafening crash, accompanied by cries from the cooks and waiters at the far end of the car.
"Get a net!" howled Teddy.
"We're off the rails," cried the performers.
"Look out for yourselves!"
Little Dimples was hurled from her stool at the lunch counter, and launched straight toward a window from which the glass was showering into the car.
Phil made a spring, catching her in his arms. But the impact and the jolt were too much for him. He went down in a heap, Little Dimples falling half over him.
He made a desperate grab for her, but the woman's skirts slipped through his hand and she plunged on toward the far end of the car.
"Look out for the coffee boiler."
A yell from a waiter told them that the warning had come too late. The man had gotten a large part of the contents of the boiler over him.
But all at once those in the car began to realize that something else was occurring. Somehow, they could feel the accommodation car wavering as if on the brink of a precipice. Then it began to settle slowly and the mystified performers and car hands thought it was going to rest where it was on the ties.