the '01' will stay on the
steel."

"To help Misther Foord out? Thot's me," said Gallagher simply.

"Not having a wire, I can't boost you any from this end. You'll meet
Folsom and Graham with the other two sections of empties where you can:
you'll run as fast as the Lord'll let you on such a track as you have:
but above all, you'll stay on the rails. If you ditch yourself, it'll go
hard with Mr. Ford."

"I'll do all thim things and wan more--and thot wan is the shtiffest av
thim all: the saints aidin' me, Misther Leckhard, I'll shtay awake."

There was a short siding at the summit of the pass, and by good hap,
Gallagher met Folsom with the first string of empties at that point: or
rather, giving the bit of good luck full credit, he heard the roaring of
Folsom's exhaust as the first of the opposing trains pounded up the
dangerous western grade, and hastily backed up and took the summit
siding.

Pitching over the hill with the "01" the moment Folsom's tail-lights had
passed the outlet switch, Gallagher had a sharp attack of memory. The
day before, in the Horse Creek yard, he had seen and remarked a jagged
scratch on the side of the Nadia. Hence, he was watching for the narrow
rock cuttings, and the three passages perilous on the cliff face were
made in safety.

Once off the mountain, however, the greater peril began to assert
itself. For a time the Irishman kept himself fully awake and alert by
pushing the 956 to the ragged edge of hazard, scurrying over the short
tangents and lifting her around the curves in breath-taking spurts.
Later this expedient began to lose its fillip. Since the train was
running wholly on the air-brakes there was nothing for the fireman to
do, and Jackson, the loyalest understudy Gallagher had ever known,
tumbled from his box in a doze, staggered across the gang-way into the
half-filled tender, and fell like a man anaesthetized full length on the
coal. Gallagher did not try to arouse him.

"'Tis hell for wan, an' twice hell for two," he muttered; and then he
shifted his right hand to the brake-cock and grasped the hot throttle
lever with the ungloved left. And for a time the pain of the burn
sufficed.

It was another piece of luck, good or bad, that made Ten Mile station
the special train's meeting point with the second train of empties. This
time it was Graham, the other engineer, who heard. He had stopped at Ten
Mile on the bare chance that the wire between that point and Saint's
Rest