, and they were
now among the mountains, whirling around precipices so sharply that
often the sleeping boys were thrown from the seats of the coaches. But
they were growing used to hardships. They merely climbed back again upon
the seats, and were asleep once more in half a minute.

The rain still fell and the wind blew fiercely among the somber
mountains. A second engine had been added to the train, and the speed
of the train was slackened. The engineer in front stared at the slippery
rails, but he could see only a few yards. The pitchy darkness closed in
ahead, hiding everything, even the peaks and ridges. The heart of
that engineer, and he was a brave man, as brave as any soldier on the
battlefield, had sunk very low. Railroads were little past their infancy
then and this was the first to cross the mountains. He was by no means
certain of his track, and, moreover, the rocks and forest might shelter
an ambush.

The Alleghanies and their outlying ridges and spurs are not lofty
mountains, but to this day they are wild and almost inaccessible in
many places. Nature has made them a formidable barrier, and in the
great Civil War those who trod there had to look with all their eyes and
listen with all their ears. The engineer was not alone in his anxiety
this night. Colonel Newcomb rose from an uneasy doze and he went with
Major Hertford into the engineer's cab. They were now going at the rate
of not more than five or six miles an hour, the long train winding like
a snake around the edges of precipices and feeling its way gingerly over
the trestles that spanned the deep valleys. All trains made a great roar
and rattle then, and the long ravines gave it back in a rumbling and
menacing echo. Gusts of rain were swept now and then into the faces of
the engineer, the firemen and the officers.

"Do you see anything ahead, Canby?" said Colonel Newcomb to the
engineer.

"Nothing. That's the trouble, sir. If it were a clear night I shouldn't
be worried. Then we wouldn't be likely to steam into danger with our
eyes shut. This is a wild country. The mountaineers in the main are for
us, but we are not far north of the Southern line, and if they know we
are crossing they may undertake to raid in here."

"And they may know it," said the colonel. "Washington is full of
Southern sympathizers. Stop the train, Canby, when we come to the first
open and level space, and we'll do some scouting ahead."

The engineer felt great relief. He