n said. He didn't seem to be surprised.

So then we told them all about how it was with us--our adventures with
the car and all that. They said we had a bad coupling and that it was no
wonder it had parted.

"We should worry," I told him; "scouts stick together, even if couplings
part. But anyway, we'd like to get off this bridge."

The fireman said it wouldn't be a bad idea.

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote A: He probably meant terra firma.]

CHAPTER XXIX

"FOILED"

Pretty soon they went back to the train and then, after about ten
minutes, the engine began puffing and coming toward us ever so slow. It
seemed as if it hardly moved.

"I think we're going to get a good bunk in the nose," Wig said.

"Good night," I told him; "I hope it doesn't pick up speed."

"I'd rather see it pick up anything than that," Connie said.

"Suppose it had hit us at full speed," Pee-wee said.

"It would have been a home run all right," I told him.

Even with that locomotive just creeping along toward us, it scared me.
It seemed as if it couldn't touch our car without banging it into
splinters. But that engineer knew what he was doing all right. The train
came along so slowly you could hardly tell it was moving, and sometimes
it stopped and started again. Pee-wee said it was going scout pace. But
it was more like a snail's pace, I guess.

Pretty soon it stopped just about ten feet from us and the headlight
brightened up the whole car. I could feel the bridge tremble a little,
sort of keeping time with that great big locomotive, as it stood there
puffing and just kind of throbbing. And I thought how all that engineer
would have to do was pull a handle and--_g--o--o--d_ night! He was
sitting, looking out of the window, sort of calm and easy, smoking a
pipe. Connie called up to him and said, "Hey, Mister, have a heart and
don't start anything." The engine just went, "_pff_, _pff_, _pff_," very
slow. We could even feel the heat of it.

Somebody called out for us to get inside the car and stay there. A man
went through our car with a red lantern and kept swinging it on the
other platform. I could see men swinging red lights way in the back of
the train, too. Some people on the train tried to get out, but the
railroad men made them get on again. I could hear a lady crying that
there was going to be a bad collision. Cracky, I never heard of a good
one, did you?

The men between the front of the engine and our car had a long iron bar