et; that will do."

The great engine lunged forward like a goaded animal, and Gertrude sat
up very straight and clung to the reversing-lever when the cab began to
lurch and sway. But she obeyed Brockway's directions promptly and
implicitly.

"Don't be afraid of her," he said. "You have a clear track and a heavy
rail."

"I'm not afraid," she asserted; "I'm miles beyond that, now. If anything
should happen, we'd all be dead before we found it out, so I can be
perfectly reckless."

Mile after mile of the level plain swept backward under the drumming
wheels, and Brockway's heart made music within him because it had some
little fragment of its desire. In order to see the track through the
front window of the cab, he had to lean his elbow on the cushion beside
her, and it brought them very near--nearer, he thought, than they would
ever be again.

Gertrude was much too full of the magnitude of things to care to talk,
but she was finally moved to ask another question.

"Are we really running along on the rails just like any well-behaved
train? It seems to me we must have left the track quite a while ago."

Brockway laughed. "You would know it, if we had. Do you see those two
little yellow lights away out ahead?"

"Yes; what are they?"

"They are the switch-lights at Corral Siding. Take hold of this lever
and blow the whistle yourself; then it won't startle you so much."

Gertrude did that, also, although it was more trying to her nerves than
all that had gone before. Then Brockway showed her how to reduce speed.

"Push the throttle in as far as it will go; that's right. Now the
reversing-lever--both hands, and brace yourself--that's it. Now take
hold of this handle and twist it that way--slowly--more yet--" the air
whistled shrilly through the vent, and the song of the brake-shoes on
the wheels of the train rose above the discordant clangor--"that will
do--turn it back," he added, when the speed had slackened sufficiently;
and he leaned forward with his hand on the brake-lever and scanned the
approaching side-track with practised eyes.

"All clear!" he announced, springing back quickly. "Pull up this lever
again, and give her steam."

Gertrude obeyed like an automaton, though she blenched a little when the
small station building at the Siding roared past, and in a few seconds
the 926 was again bettering the schedule.

"How fast are we going now?" she asked, when the engine was once more
pitching and rolling li