"Just like a page out of the Arabian Nights——" Teddy was saying when his words were cut short most unexpectedly.
There was a jar and a crash, a shock and another crash, and then the lights in the car went out, leaving the passengers in darkness.
CHAPTER II
THE WRECK
What followed was like a terrible nightmare. Shaken and jolted badly, but not seriously hurt, it took the girls a horrible minute or two to realize what had happened. There had been an accident—a terrible accident. Then hands went out in the blackness and the girls called to each other in strangled whispers that could not be heard above the din and uproar outside.
They heard Mr. Bradley shouting above the noise, asking if any one of them was hurt and reassuring them. Gradually they managed to grope their way to his side, guided by his voice, and with an agony of relief in his heart he gathered the three girls to him and heard the voices of Mrs. Gilligan and the boys at his elbow.
"Let's get out of this," he cried, and began feeling his way cautiously toward what had been the front of the car.
He soon found the aisle blocked by what appeared to be the wreck of the forward end of the car and was forced to turn back and feel his way toward the rear platform.
Fortunately the train had not been crowded. There had been only three or four passengers in that car besides themselves, and so there was little danger of being trampled in the dark.