nt the lightning ceased, but the calm, like the storm, was
terrifying. As they stood breathless a report like the ripping of a
battery burst over their heads, a blast shook the heavy car and howled
shrilly away.

Sleep was out of the question. Gertrude looked at her watch. It was
four o'clock. The two dressed and sat together till daylight. When
morning broke, dark and gray, the storm had passed and out of the
leaden sky a drizzle of rain was falling. Beside the car men were
moving. The forward door was open and the conductor in his stormcoat
walked in.

"Everything is all right this morning, ladies," he smiled.

"All right? I should think everything all wrong," exclaimed Louise.
"We have been frightened to death."

"They've got the cutting stopped," continued O'Brien, smiling. "Mr.
Glover has left the dike. He just told me the river had fallen six
inches since two o'clock. We'll be out of here now as quick as we can
get an engine: they've been switching with ours. There was
considerable wind in the night----"

"Considerable _wind_!"

"You didn't notice it, did you? Glover loaded the bridge with freight
trains about twelve o'clock and I'm thinking it's lucky, for when the
wind went into the northeast about four o'clock I thought it would take
my head off. It snapped like dynamite clear across the valley."

"Oh, we heard!"

"When the wind jumped, a crew was dumping stone into the river. The
men were ordered off the flat cars but there were so many they didn't
all get the word at once, and while the foreman was chasing them down
he was blown clean into the river."

"Drowned?"

"No, he was not. He crawled out away down by the bridge, though a man
couldn't have done it once in a thousand times. It was old Bill
Dancing--he's got more lives than a cat. Do you remember where we
first pulled up the train in the afternoon? A string of ten box cars
stood there last night and when the wind shifted it blew the whole
bunch off the track."

"Oh, do let us get away from here," urged Gertrude. "I feel as if
something worse would happen if we stayed. I'm sorry we ever left
McCloud yesterday."

The men came from their compartments and there was more talk of the
storm. Clem and his helpers were starting breakfast in the dining-car
and the doctor and Harrison wanted to walk down to see where the river
had cut into the dike. Mrs. Whitney had not appeared and they asked
the young ladies to go with them