"What's the matter? Have we run into another train?" asked Tom as he pushed Dick to one side and arose.
"I don't know," answered the older brother. "Something is wrong, that's certain."
"Are you hurt, Sam?" asked Tom as he helped the youngest Rover to his feet.
"No—not much," was the panting reply. "Say, we stopped in a hurry all right, didn't we?"
With the shock had come loud cries from the other people in the car, and it was found that one young lady had fainted. Everybody wanted to know what was the matter, but nobody could answer the question. The colored porter ran to the platform and opened the vestibule door. Tom followed the man and so did Sam and Dick.
"Freight train ahead, off the track," announced Tom. "We ran into the last car."
"Let us go up front and see how bad it is," returned Dick. "Maybe this will tie us up here for hours."
"Oh, I hope not," cried Sam. "I want to get to the college just as soon as possible. I'm dying to know what it's like."
"We can be thankful we were not hurt, Sam," said his older brother. "If our engineer hadn't stopped the train as he did we might have had a fearful smashup."
"I know it," answered Sam soberly, and then the boys walked forward to learn the full extent of the damage done and what prospects there were of continuing their journey.