when
it leaped from the bridge and the two that had afterward seen it lying
in the sand.

The track and bridge men without more ado set to work to repair the
damage done the track and bridge. A volley of messages came from
head-quarters. At noon a special car, with Colonel Stanley and the
division heads arrived to investigate.

The digging was planned and directed on a larger scale and resumed
with renewed vigor. Sheet piling was attempted. Every expedient was
resorted to that Stanley's scientific training could suggest to bring
to light the buried treasure--for an engine in those days, and so far
from locomotive works, was very literally a treasure to the railroad
company. Stanley himself was greatly upset. He paced the ties above
where the men were digging, directing and encouraging them doggedly,
but very red in the face and contemplating the situation with
increasing vexation. He stuck persistently to the work till darkness
set in. Meantime, the track had been opened and the wrecking-train
crossed the bridge and took the passing track. The moon rose full over
the broad valley and the silent plains. Men still moved with lanterns
under the bridge. Bucks, after a hard day's work at the key, was
invited for supper to Stanley's car, where the foremen had assembled
to lay new plans for the morrow. But Bob Scott, when Bucks told him,
shook his head.

"They are wasting their work," he murmured. "The company is 'out.'
That engine is half-way to China by this time."

It might, at least, as well have been, as far as the railroad company
was concerned. The digging and sounding and scraping proved equally
useless. The men dug down almost as deep as the piling that supported
the bridge itself--it was in vain. In the morning the sun smiled at
their efforts and again at night the moon rose mysteriously upon them,
and in the distant sand-hills a thousand coyotes yelped a requiem for
the lost locomotive. But no human eye ever saw so much as a bolt of
the great machine again.

CHAPTER XIV

The loss of the engine at Goose Creek brought an unexpected relief to
Bucks. His good work in the emergency earned for him a promotion. He
was ordered to report to Medicine Bend for assignment, and within a
week a new man appeared at Goose Creek to relieve him.

There was little checking up to do. Less than thirty minutes gave
Bucks time to answer all of his successor's questions and pack his
trunk. He might have slept till mornin