"Maybe you can take a journey for your health—if the freight train stops at the water tank."
"I—er—I don't understand."
"You will—if the train stops—and I think it will."
The three boys pushed off across the fields to where the railroad tracks were located. Here was the very spot where Dave had been picked up years before. Not far off was a water tank, where the locomotives usually stopped for their supply. A long freight train was just slowing down. Many of the cars were empty and the doors stood wide open.
"Me? Where?"
"Into one of the empty cars. You are going to have a ride for your health."
"Not much! Why, that train don't stop short of Jack's Junction, twelve miles from here!"
"I know it. You can walk back—the exercise will do you good."
"I—er—I don't want to go!" And Nat made as if to run away. But Dave and Phil held him.