if the dam breaks."

"Are you willing to risk it?" inquired the official.

"That's what we are here for," asserted Ralph.

"Then don't delay."

"It's getting worse and worse!" exclaimed Fogg, after a half-hour's
further running.

Ralph never forgot that vital hour in his young railroad experience.
They were facing peril, they were grazing death, and both knew it. The
wind was a hurricane. The snow came in great sheets that at times
enveloped them in a whirling cloud. The wheels crunched and slid, and
the pilot threw up ice and snow in a regular cascade.

There was a sickening slew to the great locomotive as they neared
Westbrook. The track dropped here to take the bridge grade, and as
they struck the trestle Fogg uttered a sharp yell and peered ahead.

"We can't stop now!" he shouted; "put on every pound of steam,
Fairbanks."

Ralph was cool and collected. He gripped the lever, his nerves set
like iron, but an awed look came into his eyes as they swept the
expanse that the valley opened up.

The trestle was fully half a foot under water already, and the volume
was increasing every moment. Fogg piled on the coal, which seemed to
burn like tinder. Twice a great jar sent him sprawling back among the
coal of the tender. The shocks were caused by great cakes of ice or
stray timbers shooting down stream with the gathering flood, and
sliding the rails.

"She's broke!" he panted in a hushed, hoarse whisper, as they caught
sight of the dam. There was a hole in its center, and through this
came pouring a vast towering mass fully fifteen feet high, crashing
down on the bridge side of the obstruction, shooting mammoth bergs of
ice into the air. As the sides of the dam gave way, they were fairly
half-way over the trestle. It seemed that the roaring, swooping mass
would overtake them before they could clear the bridge.

The light caboose was swinging after its groaning pilot like the tail
of a kite. A whiplash sway and quiver caused Ralph to turn his head.

The door of the caboose was open, and the light streaming from within
showed the railroad president clinging to the platform railing,
swaying from side to side. He evidently realized the peril of the
moment, and stood ready to jump if a crash came.

A sudden shock sent the fireman reeling back, and Ralph was nearly
thrown from his seat. The locomotive was bumping over a floating piece
of timber of unusual size, and toppling dangerously. Then there came
a snap. Th