moved, and Dauna, her eyes glued to his face, gasped in happy surprise.

"Jeff," she ran toward him, "Oh! Jeff, I'm so glad."

He pressed his lips to hers quickly, turned away without a word and
faced Walter Ferrell. Ferrell's face was expressionless, frightened.

"_Jeff Blake_," he said. "How did you make it?"

"There isn't time to talk now," Blake answered quickly. "O'Toole and I
overcame Harror. We managed to get them to start Mono 6 out of the cave.
O'Toole is in the cab now. In a few minutes we'll be free. Before they
wake up to the trick we played on them we'll be five hundred miles
away."

Ferrell's face relaxed. Although Blake watched him closely, the man
showed no sign of alarm.

"Good work, boy." His hand gripped Blake's shoulder. "I don't know how
you did it, but there'll be a big reward for you when we reach South
Station."

Blake sat down opposite him. His eyes never left Ferrell's face. Yet,
Ferrell held himself remarkably in reserve.

"I did it more for Dauna than anyone else," Blake admitted slowly. "We
wouldn't have anything happen to her would we?"

Ferrell turned toward his daughter.

"I've been pretty hard on my girl," he said. "But if she hadn't got out
safely I'd have torn that place apart with my bare hands."

_He meant every word of it._ Blake's body tensed. The full shock of what
Ferrell's words meant was sinking slowly into his brain. Suddenly he
shot to his feet.

"I've been a fool," he said. "A damned, blind fool!"

"A fool?" There was no mistaking Walter Ferrell's bewilderment.

Blake was already at the car door.

"I'm going to take a long chance," he shouted back. "Ferrell, you crowd
the passengers into both halls at the ends of the car. Open the outer
doors. If the train goes into the lake, try to get as many out as you
can."

* * * * *

With the shouts of alarm still ringing in his ears, Blake went swiftly
through the long empty cars toward the cab. The train was backing
through the night now at a terrific speed, and the black forest flashed
past him as he went to his appointment with Holly O'Toole.

Blake reached the head car, tried the door and stepped back in alarm. It
was locked. He looked overhead and found the tiny emergency entrance to
the catwalk above. Back inside, he dragged several chairs out quickly,
climbed them and pushed upward. Luckily the door was open. Head and
shoulders above the train, he stopped. The wind pushed h