the top. But at one point he thought he saw a
chance of escape.

As he despairingly changed the direction of the car two figures sprang
from behind the hedge and gazed in amazement at the runaway auto.

"They'll be killed to a certainty!" cried one.

Indeed it seemed so. With Jess in a dead faint and Roy looking straight
into the dark face of danger the uncontrolled car tore onward toward the
train. The engineer saw it now and blew his whistle shrilly.

CHAPTER V.

A NARROW ESCAPE.

But Roy's quick eye had noted one loophole of escape,--a gap in the bank.

Truly it was taking a terrible risk to dash the car through it. The boy
did not know what lay beyond, and in taking the chance he was running
almost as great a risk of annihilation as if he kept straight on. But to
have done the latter would have been to crash into a solid wall of moving
freight cars as they bumped across the grade crossing.

It was almost certain that they would be thrown out and maybe injured.
But Roy did not hesitate. With a quick twist of his steering wheel he
sent the car spinning on two wheels for the gap. For an instant it seemed
as if the vehicle would capsize under the sudden change of direction. But
it did not, although it tilted over at a dangerous angle.

Whiz-z-z-z-z!

In a flash they were through the gap, the landscape blurring, so terrific
was the speed.

The next instant there was a sickening shock. Instinctively Roy threw out
an arm to protect his fair companion. Hardly had he done so before he
felt himself impelled through the air as if from a catapult, and all grew
blank.

When Roy came to himself his head ached as if it would burst. It was some
few seconds, in fact, before he realized what had occurred. When he did
he looked about him. A few paces away lay the still form of Jess
Bancroft. She was stretched out on a cushion upon which she must have
fallen. For an instant, as he gazed at her features as pale as marble,
and her closed eyes, a dreadful thought flashed across Roy's mind. What
if she were dead?

But to his great relief he speedily ascertained that the girl was
breathing. An ugly bruise on her forehead may have accounted for her
continued swoon although she had fainted with terror the instant the
train appeared beneath them on the crossing.

The car, its hood crumpled up as if it had been made of paper instead of
metal, stood at the foot of a tree not far off.

"No wonder we were thrown out," th