"Nobody hurt, I hope?"
"Yes; a great many. I wonder that anybody's foolhardy enough to ride on the railroads."
"How did it happen?" said Ned, beginning to think it was a poor time to get money for a railroad invention.
"Train ran off the track," said Aunt Mercy, "and ran right down an embankment. Seems to me they always do. I don't see why they have so many embankments."
"They ought not to," said Ned. "If they only knew it, there's a way to make a railroad without any track, or any wheels to run off the track, or any embankment to run down if they did run off."
"You don't say so, Edmund Burton! What sort of a railroad would that be?"
"I happen to have the plan of one with me," said Ned.
"Edmund Burton! What do you mean?"
"I mean this," said Ned, pulling from his pocket the little frame with a rubber string stretched on it. "It's a new invention; hasn't been patented yet."
"Edmund Burton!" was all his aunt could say.