“HURRAH!” burst out Joe, overwhelmed with delight. “We’ll get ahead of those crooks after all.”
“When did you find out?” asked Mr. Holton, as overjoyed as the youth.
“Late this afternoon,” was the response. “We intended to make frequent trips to the railroad station in order to know as soon as possible. The agent there informed us that the track had been cleared last night and the locomotive repaired this morning. He didn’t give the impression that there are other trains on this route, but I suppose there are.”
“That’s fine!” exclaimed Mr. Lewis, as excited as a boy. “We’ll get a meal at once and then complete preparations for the journey. Have you two eaten?”
“Yes,” returned Fekmah. “It is getting late. Six, seven o’clock.”
The naturalists and their sons made their way to the café and did full justice to a delicious meal. Then they went back to their room and finished packing their possessions.
“Do you know,” remarked Joe that night just before retiring, “we were, in a sense, responsible for that train wreck?”
Bob looked up in surprise.
“If it hadn’t been for our proposed expedition, those two Arabs would have had no cause to wreck the train,” Joe explained.