Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/281

 sounded his bell; and those were the first words I had heard him speak since we left the rock. "Suppose I had run onto him while I was scooting along that narrow plank! I'd be dead now, sure."

The moment the man with the lantern heard the bell he faced about; but, to my surprise, he did not appear to be at all alarmed. The orders he straightway began shouting at us showed conclusively that he was used to wheelmen and their methods.

"Git aff the track, ye shpalpeen," he yelled, frantically flourishing his lantern in the air. "Don't ye see the kyars coming forninst ye, an' haven't I towled ye times widout number, that if ye gets killed ye can't get no damages from the company? Will yees git aff the track?"

"Stop that train," shouted Joe, in reply. "There's an obstruction on the track just beyond the trestle."

"What for lookin' abstraction is it?" inquired the track-walker, incredulously.

"A big rock," replied Joe; and seeing at once that he had a stupid, and no doubt an