There was barely time for Jonesy to set the switch again before it
thundered on along the main track past the little depot. Being a
special, it did not stop. As it went shrieking by, the engineer cast a
curious glance at a hand-car on the side-track. A little girl sat on it,
a pretty golden-haired child with dark eyes big with fright, and her
face as white as her dress. He wondered what was the matter.

For a moment after the shrieking train whizzed by everything seemed
deathly still. Keith sat leaning against the embankment, white and limp
from exhaustion and the excitement of his close escape. Jonesy was
panting and wiping the perspiration from his red face, for he had run
like a deer to reach the switch in time.

"I couldn't have held out a minute longer," said Keith, presently. "My
arms felt like they had gone to sleep, and I was just ready to give up
when I caught sight of you. That seemed to give me strength to go on,
when I saw what you were at and that it would only be a little farther
to go before we would be safe. Plow did you happen to be at the switch,
and know how to set it?"

"Hain't lived all my life around engine yards fer nothin'," answered
Jonesy. "Why didn't you jump off and flag the train?"

"I was so taken by surprise I didn't think of that," answered Keith.
"The only thing I knew was that we had to keep ahead of it as long as
possible. You've saved my life, Jones Carter, and I'll never forget it,
no matter what comes,"

"I've been rescued twice to-day," said the Little Colonel, taking a deep
breath as she began to recover from her fright. "Jonesy ought to be a
knight, too."

"That's so!" exclaimed Keith, springing to his feet. "Come on and let's
go back to the barn. We'll tell our adventures, and then we'll go
through the ceremony of making Jonesy a Sir Something or other. He's
certainly won his spurs."

"Goin' back on the hand-car?" asked Jonesy.

"Not much," answered Keith, with a sickly sort of smile. "Somehow such
fast travelling doesn't seem to agree with a fellow. Walking is good
enough for me."

"Me too!" cried the Little Colonel, tying on her white sunbonnet. "But
the first part of it was lovely,--just like flyin'."

Jonesy ran back to give the man his key, and was kept answering
questions so long that he did not catch up with the other children until
they were in sight of the barn.

"After all," said Keith, as the three trudged along together, "maybe
we'd better not tell h