Billy gave the bell rope a tug.
Then came a crash, a grinding, jolting sound. It seemed as if the red car were being torn from end to end. Car Three careened, rocked and swayed, threatening every second to plunge from the rails over the embankment at that point.
As suddenly as it had come, the strain seemed to have been removed from it. Once more Number Three was thundering along over the rails.
"Yee—ow!" howled Teddy from the rear platform.
The men inside the car were not saying anything. They were slowly picking themselves up from the floor, where they had been hurled by the sudden shock. The interior of the car looked as if it had been struck by a tornado. The contents were piled in a confused heap at one end of the car, paste pots overturned, bedding stripped clean from the berths, lamps smashed, and great piles of paper scattered all over the place.
"Hooray!" yelled Billy in the excess of his joy. "We're saved."
"Yes," answered Phil with a grin. "It was a close call, though. I hope no one in the car is hurt. You had better go in and find out. I am afraid our car has been damaged."
Billy leaned over the side, looking back.
"Yes, we got a beauty of a sideswipe," he said.
The coupling and rear platform of the rear car on the express train had cut a deep gash in the side of Car Three, along half of its length.