The train gave a sudden swerve as it went around a sharp curve. The abrupt change in motion nearly threw Jack from the car, but, instinctively, he clung to the edge of the door with all his strength.
Just then the train thundered over a bridge spanning a small river. The car rocked and swayed with the motion imparted to it by the curve, and then, before Jack could put out a hand to catch it, his dress-suit case toppled over and slid out of the open door, falling down into the river. Jack could see the splash it made, as it disappeared beneath the water, and then, as the train rolled on, the rumbling caused by passing over the bridge was changed to a duller sound, as solid ground was reached.
“My suit case!” exclaimed Jack, leaning from the door and looking back. “I can’t afford to lose that! I must get it. Maybe it’ll float, and perhaps the river isn’t very deep. I must get out at the next stop and go back after it. But will the train stop anywhere near here?”
Anxiously he noted the speed. It did seem as if the cars were not going quite so fast now.
“If they slow up a little more, I’ll risk it and jump,” said the boy. “I’ve got to get that suit case!”
CHAPTER X
A FRUITLESS SEARCH
Holding fast to the edge of the door, to steady himself against the swaying of the car, which was now rumbling along over an uneven piece of track, Jack peered ahead to see if there was a station in view.
“Yet perhaps this freight doesn’t stop at the regular stations,” he remarked. “I’m in a pretty mess, I am. Guess I’d better take lessons in traveling in side-door Pullmans. I need a keeper, I do. Why couldn’t I have left the case in the corner? Then the lurch of the car wouldn’t have toppled it out. Well, it’s easy enough to think that now, but that won’t bring it back.
“That looks like a station just ahead there,” he went on. “And I certainly think the train’s slowing up. I believe I could almost jump now.”
But a look at the ground directly below him showed that the car he was in was moving too rapidly to permit of a safe leap. Then came a perceptible slacking of the train’s speed. At the same time there was a long whistle from the engine.