Page:Cy Warman--The express messenger and other tales of the rail.djvu/204

192 out knowing why, began to apply the automatic air-brakes. The drivers felt it instantly, and the danger of it, and opened their throttles and whistles and began to jam the train back regardless of brakes, and the conductor, taking something of the alarm that was in the cry of the locomotives, released the air.

The driver of the light engine had reversed at once upon dropping the operator, picked up the flagman, and was now backing away for Westcreek at a frightful pace. His fireman, still at the switch, let him in on the siding; No. 8 dropped in after him, and just as the operator and conductor had forced the stub born rails back to the main line, the President's train crashed over the switch.

Not a soul on board the special knew how near they had been to death. Their orders read to meet No. 8 at Westcreek, and there she was, in to clear, just as the daring driver of the special engine had expected to find her.

The conductor of No. 8, with his two engineers, the road-master and operator, wasted five minutes reading, checking, comparing, and examining the orders they had received. They