Corporal Perrin gazed out over the moonlit scene where the busy railroaders were indefatigably laboring.
“It’s pretty fine, sir, when you think of it. There’s nothing to beat a mother when her kid’s threatened. Took it all herself, eh? I’m glad for that woman. Is she going to come back all right, sir? Did the doc say?”
“He thinks so. You see, the observation car only went over on its side. It wasn’t wrecked. The mother was badly crushed about the head. Yes. The doctor thinks she’ll be right in a week or so. We’ll pull out seeing there’s nothing more for us.”
“Shall I go forward and give the trainman the order, sir?”
“Yes. I’m sick to death. Tell him right away.”
“Very good, sir.”
The corporal saluted and dropped off the car.
A few moments later the clang of the locomotive bell rang out on the night air, and the couplings of the train jolted taut. Then came movement. And the train labored heavily up the steep ascent.
CHAPTER II
THE WOLF PACK
IT was a baby girl. And she was sprawling in a sort of wallow in the dust-dry ground at the man’s feet. She was on her back, and her tiny legs were vigorously kicking the air. Her small hands were aimlessly clawing the loose soil on either side of her, and the while her solemn eyes were gazing darkly up at the sunlit sky without blinking.