"She doesn't stop here, does she?" the sheriff asked.
"Stops at Skiddyunk for water," the conductor said. "She passes us down at Red Hill siding."
The sheriff said, "I guess two of us had better watch the station here and be on the safe side in case she slows down, and the other two will go down in one of the machines and keep an eye out at Skiddyunk. They might get on there. We'll probably beat you to Skiddyunk, but if we don't, nab 'em if they get on. They're going to try to get away from these parts, I know that."
I was just thinking we'd have to hike back along the road to our little Home Sweet Home, when the conductor said, "Hop on, you boys."
When we got to Skiddyunk, the sheriff and one of his men were already there. But there wasn't any sign of the two fellows. Then the train started backing up along the Slopson Branch and the two sheriffs stayed on it. Pretty soon we were back almost to where we had started from. There wasn't any station at Ridgeboro, but the sheriffs looked all around the closed-up store, in the wood-shed and under the platform. Then the train backed down the siding and very gently bunked into the Brewster's Centre car. There were men swinging lights and shouting to each other, while one coupled our car to the train. Then there was a lot more shouting and swinging lights and then we started.
We stood on the back platform of our own car and I could see the moon just beginning to shine on the part of the lake that we were moving away from. The wheels rattled, rattled; and it seemed kind of as if the car was saying so long, so long, so long——
Pretty soon, away across the lake, we could see a light and we knew it was the fire at Camp Smile Awhile. Then we passed the store that was all closed up tight and I said, "so long, store. So long, Camp Smile Awhile." And while we stood out there on the back platform, the wheels kept saying, "S'long, s'long, s'long, s'long, s'long...."
Gee whiz, I was sorry.