e
obstacle aside. They could hear the branches sweep the top of the
engine. Then there came a warning sound.

Bumpety-bump,-bump-bump! The tree, uprooted from the gap side by the
rain and the wind, had descried half a circle, it seemed, when shifted
by the pilot. Its big end had rolled under the coach. From the feeling
the young engineer could guess what had happened.

"Shut her off!" shouted Fogg.

"The coach has jumped the track!" echoed Ralph quickly.

His heart was in his mouth as he made every exertion to bring the
locomotive to a quick stop. No. 999 acted splendidly, but it was
impossible to slow down under two hundred feet.

"Both trucks off--she's toppling!" yelled Fogg, with a backward
glance.

Each instant Ralph waited for the crash that would announce a
catastrophe. It did not come. The coach swayed and careened, pounding
the sleepers set on a sharp angle and tugging to part the bumpers.
Ralph closed the throttle and took a glance backwards for the first
time.

"The coach is safe, Mr. Fogg," he spoke. "Get back and see how badly
the passengers are mixed up."

"There's nothing coming behind us?" asked the fireman.

"No, but tell the conductor to set the light back as far as he can
run."

"Allright."

"The Night Express!" gasped Ralph the next moment, in a hushed
whisper, as he caught the faint echo of a signal whistle ahead of them
in the distance.

An alarming thought came into his mind. Nothing could menace them
ahead on the out track and nothing was due behind, but the coach
attached to No. 999 stood on a tilt clear across the in track.

Along those rails in ten minutes' time, unaware of the obstruction,
the night express would come thundering down the grade at a forty-mile
clip around the sharp curves of Widener's Gap.

"It's 38. She's due, entering Widener," breathed Ralph. "Yes," with a
glance at the cab clock, "and just on time. Mr. Fogg," he shouted
after his fireman, leaping to the ground, "get the people out of that
coach--38 is coming."

"The Night Express," cried Fogg hoarsely. "I never thought of it."

Ralph tore one of the rear red tender lights from its place. He
started down the out rails on a dead run. His only hope now was of
reaching the straight open stretch past the last curve in open view of
Widener. To set the warning signal short of that would be of no avail.
No. 38 could not possibly see it in time, coming at full speed, to
avoid a smash-up.

In a single minute