A few minutes later, as he again paused at the door of the engine room, he saw that no one was there. For a moment he hesitated as though undecided what to do; then, glancing quickly and seeing the coast was clear, he stepped into the room and threw open the furnace door.
“Hump, that’s not half a fire,” he muttered, as he glanced about him.
In a small bin to one side of the furnace he saw a few sticks of wood, and moving with great quickness he threw four of the largest pieces in on top of the coal.
“There, I guess that’ll get some action out of her,” he muttered, as he closed the furnace door and quickly left the room.
The action was not long in manifesting itself, but not in the way he desired. Big Ben was again up forward talking with the captain, when a dull explosion came to their ears.
“There, that old engine’s blown out a cylinder head again,” the captain declared, as he left the wheel and started for the engine room, closely followed by the angry man.
By the time they reached the room the engine had stopped and the room was filled with steam.
“We’ll have to wait till she cools down,” the captain declared. “Where’s Joe? I told him not to let her get above thirty pounds. She blows off at thirty-two and the valve’s been sticking lately. Haven’t had time to fix it yet.”
Big Ben, knowing that he had lost the race through his own foolish action, said nothing but turned away mentally kicking himself for a meddling fool.
“Oh, Bob, something has happend to the Twilight. See, she stopped,” Jack shouted to his brother, who at that moment was talking with the captain in the pilot-house.