“Not any way, until after I’ve got that note-book of mine,” said Larry the thorough; adding: “I hope the big chief didn’t go back to look for it after we were locked up.”
Treading as lightly as story-book Indians, they stole around the commissary building, and at the tool-room end of it [they had a glimpse of the sleeping sentinel stretched out before the padlocked door]. A quick little run took them to the material piles, and Larry climbed to the top of the cross-tie stack and was overjoyed when he found his note-book lying just where it had lodged.
[They had a glimpse of the sleeping sentinel stretched out before the padlocked door]
“Now we’re on our way,” he announced, scrambling down; and the stumbling retreat in the darkness was begun.
It seemed to both of them that they had blundered along for uncounted miles before they heard the welcome thunder of the Tourmaline growling among its boulders in the main canyon. Arrived at the gulch mouth, however, they hardly knew which way to go. Up-stream there were the big boulders and the pine-tree bridge, but tight-rope work over a boiling mountain torrent in the dark of the moon didn’t appeal much to either one of them.
“No,” said Larry; “we can’t risk that, and, besides, it would take us just that much out of our way. It’s down-stream for us, and we’ll have to take a chance on finding some way to cross.”
Deciding thus, they turned to the right and clawed their way down the canyon. It was a stiff job in the darkness, and there were spots where the canyon cliffs leaned in so far that they had to wade in the edge of the torrent; but they hurried on and finally came out of the mountain hazards and into the foot-hills, where the going was easier and they could make better time.
At that moment the big construction camp, where Chief Engineer Ackerman had his headquarters, was two good miles below the mouth of Tourmaline Canyon. Luckily, the railroad grade at this particular point was closely paralleling the river, so when the two boys came opposite the camp they had no difficulty in locating it. A few lusty shouts aroused the camp, and some of the men turned out and backed a wagon into the stream, and thus the two Marathon runners were ferried across.