ght, sir," said John, laying his hand on the regulator.

Even while the superintendent was speaking Will Garvie's swift mind had
appreciated the idea. He had leaped down and uncoupled the _Lightning_
from its train. John touched the whistle, let on steam and off they
went crossed to the up-line (which was the wrong line of rails for any
engine to run in _that_ direction), and away he went at forty, fifty,
seventy miles an hour! John knew well that he was flying towards a
passenger-train, which was running towards him at probably thirty-five
or forty miles an hour. He was aware of its whereabouts at that time,
for he consulted his watch and had the time-table by heart. A collision
with it would involve the accumulated momentum of more than a hundred
miles an hour! The time was short, but it was sufficient; he therefore
urged Will to coal the furnace until it glowed with fervent heat and
opened the steam valve to the uttermost. Never since John Marrot had
driven it had the _Lightning_ so nearly resembled its namesake. The
pace was increased to seventy-five and eighty miles an hour. It was
awful. Objects flew past with flashing speed. The clatter of the
engine was deafening. A stern chase is proverbially a long one; but in
this case, at such a speed, it was short. In less than fifteen minutes
John came in view of the fugitive--also going at full speed, but, not
being so powerful an engine and not being properly managed as to the
fire, it did not go so fast; its pace might have been forty or
forty-five miles an hour.

"Will," shouted John in the ear of his stalwart fireman, "you'll have to
be sharp about it. It won't do, lad, to jump into the arms of a madman
with a fire-shovel in his hand. W'en I takes a shot at 'im with a lump
of coal, then's yer chance--go in an' win, lad--and, whatever--ye do,
keep cool."

Will did not open his compressed lips, but nodded his head in reply.

"You'll have to do it all alone, Bill; I can't leave the engine,"
shouted John.

He looked anxiously into his mate's face, and felt relieved to observe a
little smile curl slightly the corners of his mouth.

Another moment and the _Lightning_ was up with the tender of the
run-away, and John cut off steam for a brief space to equalise the
speed. Thomson at that instant observed for the first time that he was
pursued. He looked back with a horrible glare, and then, uttering a
fierce cheer or yell, tugged at the steam handle to i