answer the call? The order stood for itself--"Hold second Number Two."
That was the second section of the Limited, east-bound. Hold her! How?
There was nothing--not a thing to stop her with. "Use your head," said
Donkin in a far-away voice to Toddles' wobbling brain.

Toddles looked up the track--west--where he had come from--to where the
switch light twinkled green at him--and, with a little sob, he started
to drag himself back along the platform. If he could throw the switch,
it would throw the light from green to red, and--and the Limited would
take the siding. But the switch was a long way off.

Toddles half fell, half bumped from the end of the platform to the right
of way. He cried to himself with low moans as he went along. He had the
heart of a fighter, and grit to the last tissue; but he needed it all
now--needed it all to stand the pain and fight the weakness that kept
swirling over him in flashes.

On he went, on his hands and knees, slithering from tie to tie--and from
one tie to the next was a great distance. The life and death, the
dispatcher's call--he seemed to hear it yet--throbbing, throbbing on the
wire.

On he went, up the track; and the green eye of the lamp, winking at him,
drew nearer. And then suddenly, clear and mellow through the mountains,
caught up and echoed far and near, came the notes of a chime whistle
ringing down the gorge.

Fear came upon Toddles then, and a great sob shook him. That was the
Limited coming now! Toddles' fingers dug into the ballast, and he
hurried--that is, in bitter pain, he tried to crawl a little faster. And
as he crawled, he kept his eyes strained up the track--she wasn't in
sight yet around the curve--not yet, anyway.

Another foot, only another foot, and he would reach the siding
switch--in time--in plenty of time. Again the sob--but now in a burst of
relief that, for the moment, made him forget his hurts. He was in time!

He flung himself at the switch lever, tugged upon it and then,
trembling, every ounce of remaining strength seeming to ooze from him,
he covered his face with his hands. It was _locked_--padlocked.

Came a rumble now--a distant roar, growing louder and louder,
reverberating down the canyon walls--louder and louder--nearer and
nearer. "Hold second Number Two. Hold second Number Two"--the
"seventeen," the life and death, pleading with him to hold Number Two.
And she was coming now, coming--and--and--the switch was locked. The
deadly naus