"What did we strike?"
"Are we going to upset?"
"Let me get out of here! I don't want to be smashed up!"
Such were some of the cries which rent the air while the train was still in motion and after it came to a standstill. Every passenger had been shaken up, and not a few were knocked down. Fortunately, however, no one in that particular car seemed to be much hurt, although several were bruised and every one was more or less nervous.
"Are you hurt, Fred?" questioned Jack quickly, as he saw his young cousin feeling of his forehead.
"Well, I got a pretty good bump," answered the youngest Rover, "and I guess I'm going to have a lump there as a consequence."
"We'll get out and see what's doing, and then you can put some snow on it."
Some of the passengers were already leaving the car, and the Rover boys and their chums quickly followed. The trouble was all ahead, and they had some difficulty in wading through the snow alongside the track to get to the front of the train.
Here it was plain to be seen what had happened. The train from the north had come in and tried to take the siding, as was the custom. But the switch had become blocked with snow, and the train had been thrown out on the main track, which at this point, crossed the track on which the train from Portview was coming. The big locomotive of the latter train had ploughed through the middle of the train from the north, hitting the latter between two of the cars and sending those cars in either direction to the sides of the track.
"Gee! this is some wreck!" exclaimed Gif.