“But surely we’ve come nearly that far by now,” Tubby up and said from the rear, as he ducked under some bushes that developed a fondness for scratching his face.
“We are nearly there,” asserted the guide, and then Andy hastily exclaimed:
“Listen, boys! that sounds like the rumble of a train right now in the near distance!”
“Oh! horrors!” gasped Tubby. “Can it be that we’re too late, after all?”
CHAPTER XVI
THE STONE CAIRN ON THE BORDER
“Naw, naw, ye’re baith wrang!” hastily exclaimed Donald, as soon as he could “get a word in edgewise.”
“But that certainly was a train we heard,” affirmed Andy stoutly, adding: “There goes a whistle! Don’t you hear it, Donald?”
“Oh, ay, but ye ken it was not my fayther’s hand at the throttle of the engine. That train is the regular passenger goin’ west. It is much too airly for the freight carrying munitions and stores, and bound east.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you say so,” Andy was quick to admit.
“I can breathe easy again,” muttered Tubby, who had received quite a severe shock.