“I know that a wild-cat train is not an unusual sight,” exclaimed the latter, “but something tells me that we are interested in the one we see before us. Just as you spoke, I saw a momentary flash in the engineer’s cab, and I’ll bet it was the reflection from a breast-buckle.”
“Reflection of what?” demanded Mack.
“Why, light, of course.”
“That’s a good one. Why, man alive, if there was a breast-buckle in the cab, where is the light for it to reflect? The sun was hidden by those clouds an hour ago.”
“I don’t care if it was,” said the president, decidedly. “Isn’t the cab lighted up when the fireman opens the door to replenish the furnace? There! What do you say to that?”
Mack was so bewildered that he did not know what to say regarding some of the extraordinary things that happened during the next few seconds. First, the engineer whistled for the bridge, and then for the station, but he did not “slow down,” as he would have done under ordinary circumstances. He kept on at full speed, and this seemed to indicate that he was in a hurry. As the train drew nearer, the dense mass on the forward flat began to assume forms and shapes, and then Mack saw that it was composed of many different bodies, and that they were all in motion. Very soon these different bodies began to assume color as well as form, some showing blue and the others gray. Before Mack could give utterance to the words of astonishment that rose to his lips, he heard the warning notes of a bugle, such as the leader of a band gives when he desires to call the attention of his men, and an instant afterward the cheering strains of a triumphal march came floating across the river. If ever a band tried to talk, this one did. Its music gave the listening boys a very fair idea of the situation, and, as they afterwards declared, there was a whole column of good news in every note that came from its instruments.
Mack and his companion looked wonderingly at each other for a moment, and then they looked at the train again. Two objects, which bore some resemblance to huge umbrellas, had been raised from the middle of the crowd on the forward flat, and were now slowly unrolling themselves. The first that was given to the breeze was the Star Spangled Banner, and the one that floated alongside of it was the white silk flag that bore the monogram of the Bridgeport Military Academy.
“What do you say now?” repeated the president, as soon as he could speak. “Blake and the other two members of the committee have stolen a march on Lester as sure as the world.”
Mack thought so too, but he had never dreamed of such good luck, and he wanted somebody to confirm him in his opinion.
“Do you really believe that they have brought our dinner back to us?” he asked.