At last, after what seemed a never-ending wait, the deluge was over, and the Scouts came out of their refuge, stretching their limbs, and again took up the trail.
At first their progress was slow, for in every hollow the water lay so deep that they were forced to abandon the trail and skirt around it. In more than one place a great tree lay across the trail and they must either go around or push through the fallen branches. All this took time and effort, and the boys were tired when they reached a part of the trail that led outside the woods, where they found the going much easier.
Then they reached the river, along whose banks the trail led to within a mile of the county town, for to purchase some much needed stores in the village had been the object of this hike.
Long before they reached the river they could hear its rushing waters and so were prepared to see it swollen, but the sight which now met their eyes was beyond anything they had imagined.
The raging volume of water that came tearing down the river course was more like some great, swirling cataract than a river. They remembered how it had looked on the day they came to camp as, crossing on the trestle which spanned it, they had looked down upon it from the train, and admired its quiet beauty. Then the blue sky was mirrored in its quiet depths, now a great mass of whirling, muddy water, sweeping all before it.
Recovering a little from their amazement at the sight of the rushing current, they went on down the trail until the trestle came in sight. At the first glance they stood as if turned to stone. For several minutes the Scouts gazed into the faces of one another, and, though no word was spoken, whole volumes were read in eyes full of alarm and faces which, despite the stout hearts back of them, were blanched with fear.
It had needed only one glance to see it all. On its course down the valley, the swollen river, overflowing its banks at many places, had loosened the earth from the roots of many trees growing along its edge and had borne them along. Several of these had been wedged against the foundation supports of the trestle and on the farther side had loosened several of them. This had caused the frame to sag away from the track, leaving the rails loosened and out of place for many feet at that end of the trestle, and—appalling thought! the afternoon express was due in little more than an hour. Is it any wonder that the thought left the Scouts white and speechless?
In order to give the alarm to the on-coming train it would be necessary to cross the river. Ordinarily this would be easy enough, for here the river had neither great depth nor strong current, but one glance now at the raging, boiling torrent that had taken the place of the usually placid river showed that to be dangerous, if not impossible.
As the Troop stood there hesitating, trying to decide on the best thing to do, there was constantly before each one a picture of the train speeding out on that broken trestle, then falling, its cars piling up one upon the other, the shrieks and groans of the injured—Ah, but they must not think of these things! It would make them unable to plan. That they must do something to save the train went without saying. No true Scout could stand or had ever stood by when there was disaster to be prevented or life to be saved.
“Now, Scouts,” said Mr. Durland in a resolute voice, “here is an emergency that will test all your training. We must act quickly, or it will be too late.”