But now the old man's peril, her own alarm and her desire to save the stranger's life, drove all other thoughts out of the girl's mind.
CHAPTER III
THE AERIAL TRAMWAY
He might have gone right under the wheels of the backing freight train—that queer looking old gentleman—umbrella and all! Ruth Kenway dragged him back, and the train rumbled past them so near that the umbrella scraped along the sides of the box-cars.
"What under the sun's the matter with you, girl?" snapped the old man.
He turned on her so angrily, and furled the huge umbrella with such emphasis, that Ruth was quite startled, although she had thought that this time she would be prepared for any outbreak of irritation or displeasure on his part. She backed away from him, and as other people who had seen the incident came crowding about, the girl slipped away and crossed the tracks hurriedly when the freight train had gone by.
But the one-armed flagman and other railroad employees let the old gentleman understand beyond peradventure that he had barely escaped a dreadful accident. He had been about to step directly in the path of the backing freight train.
"My, my, my!" he exclaimed at last, "'tisn't possible!"
"It just is possible!" retorted the one-armed flagman. "One minute more and you'd've been ground to powder like as not if it hadn't been for that there girl. Some spunk, she's got."