She smiled, but Kit saw she shivered, and he put all the wood and coal in the stove.
“To begin with, we’ll celebrate your return by a royal feast. But when you left the bridge did you know how far off the gravel pit was?”
“The men said it was a piece up the track, but I ought to make it before the train was loaded and I hurried off. You see, in four days I must be at Montreal....”
Kit saw she did not want to go without saying good-bye to him, and he was moved. Alison had run a worse risk than she knew, and he pictured his remarks to the railroad men.
“When I got to the pit the train was gone. I saw a storm was coming and I must reach the bridge as soon as possible,” Alison continued. “The track curves round some high ground and I thought I’d take a short line across the loop, and I got entangled in the bluffs and when I found the rails again the snow was thick. Until I met you, I was afraid.... But do you hear something?”
Kit jumped up. When he pulled back the door a fan-shaped beam pierced the snow, and running for the fire-stick, he pushed the end in the stove. A few moments afterwards he waved the burning stick by the track, but the wind cut the small flame and it presently went out.
Three or four yards off, a high headlamp glimmered like a foggy moon. In the snow the roll of wheels was muffled, and Kit shouted with all his force, but the explosive snorts from the locomotive drowned his voice. The frozen ground shook and he jumped back. He saw the cab windows shine, and then all was dark. Thick smoke blew about him, and when he tried to shout he choked. Indistinct cars rolled by and vanished, and Kit leaned against the shack and clenched his fist.
The bridge camp was two or three miles off; but one could not get there, and the engineer would only stop for Austin to get down. Bob thought Kit and Alison at the office, and when he found out they were not, the train would be gone. Then he might get a hand-car and try to search the line, but the snow clogged the rails and Kit doubted if flesh and blood could face the storm.
Well, Alison must not know and he went back to the hut. Snow had blown across the floor. The stuff was dry and some about the bottom of the stove did not melt. Kit thought the stove got empty, but the wood and coal were gone. Alison shivered and her face was pinched.
“The train did not stop,” she said.