“Yes, but wh—”
“Do you know how to make a battery?”
“No.”
“Well, listen—”
The instruments had suddenly failed to respond. A minute passed, and another. Five went by, and Alex sank back in the chair in despair. Undoubtedly the storm had broken the wire somewhere.
“Everything against us!” he declared bitterly. “And the runaways will be down here now in fifteen or twenty minutes. What can we do?”
“I can’t think of anything but throwing the west switch,” said Saunders. “And loaded, and going at the speed they are, they’ll make a mess of everything on the siding. But that’s the only way I can think of stopping them.”
“If there was any way a fellow could get aboard the runaways—”
Alex broke off sharply. Would it not be possible to board the runaway train as he and Jack had boarded the engine on the day of the forest fire? Say, from a hand-car?
He started to his feet. “Billy, get me a lantern, quick!