t I mustn't grumble, for
the total absence of moon will be uncommonly useful for my purpose." A
flash of lightning streaked the horizon, and the man stopped and looked
quickly about him. "I can't be far from the place," he thought, and
again went on his way. Presently he heaved a sigh of relief. "Here I am
at last."

At this spot the line was completely enclosed between two high slopes,
or ran at the bottom of a deep cutting.

"It's better here," the man said to himself; "the wind passes well above
my head, and the cutting gives good shelter." He stopped and carefully
deposited on the ground a rather bulky bundle he had been carrying under
his arm; then he began to pace up and down, stamping his feet in an
effort to keep warm. "It has just struck three," he muttered. "From the
time-table I can't expect anything for another ten minutes. Well, better
too soon than too late!" He contemplated the bundle which he had laid
down a few minutes before. "It's heavier than I thought, and deucedly in
the way. But it was absolutely necessary to bring it. And down here in
this cutting, there is nothing for me to be anxious about: the grass is
thick, so I can run, and the line is so straight that I shall see the
lights of the train a long way off." A thin smile curled his lips. "Who
would have thought, when I was in America, that I should ever find it so
useful to have learnt how to jump a train?"

A dull sound in the distance caught his ear. In a second he had sprung
to his bundle, picked it up, and, choosing a spot on the ballast,
crouched down listening. At the place where he stood the line ran up a
steep acclivity. It was from the lower end of this that the noise he had
heard proceeded, and now was growing louder, almost deafening. It was
the heavy, regular puffing of a powerful engine coming up a steep
gradient, under full steam.

"No mistake: my star is with me!" the man muttered, and as the train
approached he stretched his muscles and, taking a firmer grip of his
bundle, he bent forward in the stooping attitude that runners take when
about to start off in a race.

With a heavy roar, and enveloped in clouds of steam, the train came up
to where he was, travelling slowly because of the steep gradient,
certainly less than twenty miles an hour. The moment the engine had
passed him, the man started off, lithe as a cat, and ran at the top of
his speed. The train, of course, gained upon him; the tender, luggage
vans, and third-c