That was all. Ben tore at the key, sending out into the night, “J-J, J-J, J-J,” until my head swam.
But no response came; not the least flutter. Only agonizing, storm shrieking silence.
Then he gave it up and staggered to his feet. His face was as gray as slate. “Jim,” he gasped, “Donaldson is dead! I know it. It was a dying man who sent that message.”
I grabbed him by the shoulders. “You fool!” I yelled. “He can’t be dead—he sent it. Don’t you understand? They’re going to wreck the Limited. Donaldson was telling us. He may be wounded. We’ve got to get to him.”
Slowly, as if his body was awakening from sleep, the muscles in his shoulders under my hand tightened. “Sure, I get you,” he whispered. And before I knew what he was doing, he shook me off, rushing blindly for the stairs. “Come on, Jim. For God’s sake, hurry!” he called. “Bring my gun and some torpedoes. It’s only five miles by the road; thirty down the mountain by the track. Let’s try the car—”
I stopped long enough to be sure the revolver we kept in a drawer was loaded, stuffed some torpedoes in my pocket, and followed him. Out into the gale he sped to where he kept his little second-hand, mud-spattered gas-wagon. I had always kidded him about it, laughed at it; but now I prayed.
Yes, funny when you think of it, me praying! But I did—prayed it would run; prayed there was gas and oil in it.
Once away from the lee of the building, the storm wrapped around us, flinging the snow in our faces, making us gasp for breath. We were taking desperate chances and breaking all rules—this leaving a tower vacant, but what could we do? What in God’s name could we do?
When I caught up with Ben he was cranking the engine desperately. I propped the shanty door open, though the blast of wind threatened to fairly tear it from its hinges.
Fortunately the radiator of the car had antifreezing mixture in it. After an agonizing moment, the engine gave a couple of disgusted coughs and died. But Ben went right on. He spun that thing till I was dizzy as I sat with my hand on the throttle, feeding it raw gas.