o Freight Number 73
also pulled out, leaving him behind. A minute later, and it too was gone,
and the drowsy echoes answered its heavy rumblings faintly and more
faintly, until they again fell asleep, and all was still.

Through the long hours of the night Rod Blake sat and silently suffered.
The distress of the gag in his mouth became wellnigh intolerable, and his
wrists swelled beneath the cords that bound them, until he could have
cried out with the pain. He grew thirsty too. Oh, so thirsty! and it
seemed as though the daylight would never come. He had no idea what
good, or even what change for the better, the daylight would bring him;
but still he longed for it. Nor was the young tramp who shared his
imprisonment at all happy or comfortable. He too was thirsty, and hungry
as well, and though he was not gagged nor bound, he suffered, in
anticipation, the punishment he expected to receive when he and his
wickedness should be discovered. Thus, whenever the train stopped, a sense
of his just deserts terrified him into silence; though while it was in
motion his ravings were terrible to hear.

At length the morning light began to show itself through chinks and
crevices of the closed car. Conductor Tobin and his men reached the end of
their run, and turned the train over to a new crew, who brought with them
a fresh locomotive and their own caboose.

Still the young tramp would not give in. The morning was nearly gone,
and Rod was desperate with suffering, before he did, and, during a stop,
began to shout to be let out. Nobody heard him, apparently, and when the
train again moved on, the situation of the prisoners was as bad as ever.

Now the fellow began to grow as much alarmed for fear he would not be
discovered, as he had previously been for fear lest he should be. In this
state of mind he decided that at the next stop the shouting for help
should be undertaken by two voices instead of one. So he removed the gag
from Rod's mouth, and cut the cord by which his wrists were bound. The
poor lad's throat was dry and husky; but he readily agreed to aid in
raising a shout, as soon as the train should stop.

In the meantime the arrival of Freight Number 73 was awaited with a lively
interest at the very station it was approaching, when this agreement
between the prisoners was made. It was aroused by a despatch, just sent
along the line by the agent in whose charge Brakeman Joe had been left.
The despatch stated that he had re