t a mile down the cut. Coal given out, no steam. Saw your
fire, didn't want to freeze to death quite, so----"

"We guessed that you were the Overland," piped in a fresh, boyish
voice. "Packed up some eatables, and here we are. How do you like my
new railroad rocket signals, Engineer Fairbanks?" and Archie Graham,
the young inventor, picked himself up from the snow.

CHAPTER XXXI

CONCLUSION

One hour after daybreak the vicinity of the snowbound Overland Express
resembled a picture, rather than a forlorn blockade.

The lone adventurers who had made the trip from the stalled freight
had been a relief party indeed. The engineer was a railroader of long
experience, and he had thought out the dilemma of the refugees. He and
his companions had broken open a freight car and had brought each a
good load. There was coffee, sugar, crackers, canned meats, a ham,
and, what was most welcome to anxious mothers and their babes, a whole
crate of condensed milk.

There never was a more jolly breakfast than that aboard the snowbound
coaches. There was plenty to eat and to spare all around, and plenty
more at the stalled freight, everybody knew. In front of the engine
many a merry jest went the rounds, as the train crews and some of the
passengers broiled pieces of succulent ham on the end of pointed
twigs.

"You see, it was this way," Archie Graham explained to the young
engineer of No. 999. "I was just watching a chance for washouts or
snowstorms to get on a train diving into the danger. Those red bombs
are my invention. I shoot them from a gun. I can send them a mile or
gauge them to go fifty feet. They ignite when they drop, and by
sending out a lot of them they are bound to land somewhere near the
train you aim at. The engineer is bound to take notice, just as you
did, of the glare, and that's where they beat the fusees and save the
running back of a brakeman."

"Archie," said Ralph honestly, "I believe you're going to hit some
real invention some time."

"I helped out some with my patent rocket signals this time," declared
Archie.

"You did, my lad," observed Fogg with enthusiasm, "and the passengers
know all about it, and they've mentioned you in a letter they're
getting up to the company saying how they appreciate the
intelligence--that's Fairbanks--the courage, ahem! that's me, and the
good-heartedness, that's all of us, of the two train crews."

By the middle of the afternoon a snow plow opened up the line