“That shore hangs us high and dry, don’t it?” asked Hashknife.
The conductor nodded grimly.
“We’re here for a while,” he said. “Can’t take a chance on that thing, and we’ve got a passenger coming in behind us. They’ll be running slow, and won’t be hard to flag. The best thing for you boys to do is to go to bed. That span is sure to burn out in this wind.”
The wind was so strong that they had to yell in order to converse.
“Might as well be comfortable!” yelled the engineer.
The conductor nodded and followed Hashknife back to the caboose, where he broke the news to the rest of the boys.
“Ain’t that ⸺?” wailed Sleepy. “Two miles from a dentist, and the road on fire!”
“Better go to bed, Sleepy,” said Hashknife. “Mebbe yuh can sleep it off.”
But Sleepy told them in no uncertain terms that sleep was out of the question. One of the cowboys produced a pint of liquor, and this served to put Sleepy in better spirits. No one denied him any of it. Hashknife was curious about the passenger train which was following them, and went on to the rear platform.
Possibly they had been stopped for thirty minutes when Hashknife saw the beams of the passenger engine. The road was fairly crooked for several miles, and he could see the beams of the headlight, as it swung around the curves, throwing streamers of light off across the hills. It was not traveling fast. It came closer and closer, and Hashknife wondered why it did not seem to pay any attention to the rear flagman. Of course he was out of sight around a curve, but the speed of the passenger had not diminished.