The answer made his heart leap. "Thank you! Thank you! You've done us the biggest favor anybody could!"
Working with all possible speed, Bunny hooked the front of the telephone box in place, warned the old gentleman to tape the exposed wire outside the house, and dashed after the others, without getting more than the first part of the thanks which were being showered upon him.
Already the other boys had rounded the next bend in the road, and it took stiff running for almost three hundred yards to catch them.
"Just heard the whistle of the train," Specs confided, as Bunny came even.
"We'll make it," said Bunny confidently. "Why, we're not much behind schedule. There are over seventy seconds of our regular time left, and they have promised to hold the train an extra minute for us."
As they trotted down the last hill, the railroad station came into sight. Already slowing down, the train was just pulling in.
"Safe at last!" Nap shouted. "I knew we could catch it."
But even while they were still running, a most unexpected thing happened.
The train braked to a stop. But it wasn't a real stop. As Specs said, it seemed as though the engineer just "hesitated." Almost before the big driving wheels had ceased revolving, and with the nine boys still a good two hundred yards from the track, the engine puffed, the piston rods spun the wheels till the friction caught, and the train, under gathering speed, pounded out of sight.