At that moment brakes were put on the train and the girls were suddenly tumbled together in quite a heap. There was something ahead to cause this sudden stoppage, and Tavia struggled with her window again. It went up easier this time. Perhaps that was because there was no good looking young man—in or out of uniform—near at hand.
“Oh! it’s a fire!” gasped Cologne, looking over Tavia’s shoulder when the latter got the window open.
“On the tracks!” declared Tavia.
Dorothy got a glimpse of the fire now.
“It’s the bridge over Caloom Creek,” she cried. “It’s all ablaze! I declare, girls, suppose we are held here all night!”
“Don’t mention such a thing!” groaned Ned Ebony. “It’s only twenty miles from here to Glenwood.”
“Right,” agreed Tavia; “and Belding is the next station beyond the creek.”
“Let’s go out and ask the railroad men if we can’t get over the river and get a train on to Glenwood at once,” suggested Dorothy Dale.
“Let’s!” agreed Tavia, with a giggle. “That nice young brakeman, Doro—I’ll ask him, if you are bashful.”
But it was the conductor in charge of the train they found when the hilarious party of school girls got out with their hand baggage.