ing by the open
switch. "Think I'm going to waste steam stopping for you?" The
brakesman swung aboard. "All the specials are cancelled to-noight for
the foight. We got three miles o' clear track. Go on, Mollie!"

But he was wrong. Lack of steam pressure alone saved them. Murphy,
staring ahead into the beam of the headlight, suddenly grabbed a lever
in either hand, yelling a warning:

"Hang on, b'ys!"

The wheels scraped the rails. Mahon unsupported, fell against the
fireplace but rolled clear without injury. There was a sickening
thump, and the engine sagged forward and stopped abruptly.

"Missed it, be the powers!" snarled Murphy. "Another foot and we'd
have kept the rails. They've put one over on us. Bally fools we were
not to look for it. How far's the foight away, it's hoofing it we are
now."

A sputter of rifle fire burst from the woods and bullets rattled on the
metal of engine and tender. No one was hurt, and the two Policemen
silenced the fire immediately by returning it with surprising
precision. A yell from the darkness told of a nip at least.

"Out behind the grade!" ordered Mahon. "I'll keep them down till
you're covered."

A blaze from the trees, and he fired twice at it in rapid succession.

"And lave Mollie?" protested Murphy. "Not by a jugful!"

"To blazes with Mollie!" Mahon exploded, and threw the engineer through
the cab door.

Murphy slowly picked himself up. "I see two foights on afther this
one," he declared joyously. "And I'll lick the bohunk that stops a one
o' thim, I will."

"Somebody st'ys with the engine, any'ow," muttered 'Uggins stubbornly.
"'Ere, Murphy, we'll toss."

"What good's that?" asked Mahon. "It's human lives we're saving
to-night, not engines."

"Gor lumme! Wots the use o' losin' the engine, too, I says. Any'ow,
them rifles in there is more use to us 'ere than there at the trestle.
An' I can't be savin' 'uman lives, women ones, in these togs."

Murphy climbed back into the cab. His purpose was the innocent one of
letting off the rapidly accumulating steam; but Huggins was suspicious
and followed closely.

"It's a toss, I tell yu," he insisted. "'Ere, len' me a tanner; I
forgot my wallet."

Murphy extracted a coin from his pocket, and Huggins opened the
fireplace door for light. There were to be no tricks in this toss.
Three bullets thudded into the metal about them, but Murphy and his
fireman were intent on a falling copper.

Huggi