say "no" to this, for he did not see any better
plan. Of course they could not go on to Cowboy Jack's ranch and leave Vi
and Laddie behind.

The other passengers in the car took much interest in the Bunkers'
trouble. Most of the men and women had grown fond of Violet, in spite of
her inquisitiveness, and all admired Laddie Bunker. It seemed a really
terrible thing that the two should have become separated from their
parents and the other children.

"Something is always happening to us Bunkers," confessed Russ. "But what
happens isn't often as bad as this. I don't see what Vi and Laddie could
have been thinking of."

We know, however, that the twins had been thinking of nothing but
gathering flowers and chasing a chipmunk until that train whistle had
sounded. How the twins did run then across the pasture and up to the
very verge of the high bank overlooking the railroad cut!

"Oh, the train's gone!" shrieked Vi, when she first looked down.

"And the workmen are gone too," gasped Laddie.

There was nobody left in the cut, and both the train and the handcar on
which the section hands had traveled, were out of sight. It was the
loneliest place that the twins had ever seen!

"Now, see what we've done," complained Vi, between her sobs. "We ran
away and lost mother and daddy and the others. They've gone on to Cowboy
Jack's and left us here."

"Then we didn't run away from them," Laddie said more sturdily. "They
ran away from us."

"That doesn't make any difference," complained his sister. "We--we're
lost and can't be found."

"Say!" cried Laddie suddenly, "how do you s'pose that train hopped over
that rock?"

This point interested Vi at once. It was a most astonishing thing. If
the train had gone on to Cowboy Jack's, it surely had got over that big
rock in a most wonderful way.

"How did it get over the rock?" Vi began. "Did it fly over? I never saw
the wings on that engine, did you? And if the engine _did_ fly over, it
couldn't have dragged the cars with it, could it?"

"Oh, don't, Vi!" begged Laddie, much puzzled. "I couldn't tell you all
that. Maybe they had some way of lifting the train around the rock.
Anyway, it's gone."

"And--and--and what shall _we_ do?" began Vi, almost ready to cry again.

"We have just got to follow on behind it. I guess daddy will miss us and
get off and come back to look for us after a while."

"Do you suppose he will?"

"Yes," said Laddie with more confidence, as he though