“Yes, stop! Stop!” cried the foreman. “Stop. They’ve got us. No use being foolhardy.”
Leaning over, he addressed the men below. “Look here,” he said, persuasively, “can’t you fellows see that Big Tony is only using you to make trouble for me, because I fired him for being drunk? As I told you at first, everything he has said is untrue. Why won’t you believe it?”
The men were silent a moment, then one of them addressed Alex. “Boy, is dat true?”
“Every word of it,” said Alex, earnestly. “And I would have heard all about it at the station if they had intended cutting your wages, or bringing others here to take your places.”
“Den I believe it,” said the Pole.
The man with the pistol returned it to his pocket. “I am sorry I shoot,” he said.
“And now, what about the train?” inquired the foreman, quickly. “Did you touch the switch?”
In the look of guilt the foreigners turned on one another he saw the alarming answer. Whipping out his watch, he held it to the light.
“Alex,” he said, sharply, “you have just ten minutes to catch that train at the Junction! If you don’t get her she’s gone! There’s not time now to get down to the main line from here to flag her!”
Before he had ceased speaking Alex had his cap over the light and was once more flashing an urgent “BX! BX! BX!” while below the foreigners looked on, now with an anxiety equal to that of the two on the tower.