miles, he'll nevertheless have to catch the train, and I can board her
at any speed that he can.

So I run on, keeping just comfortably ahead of him and straining my
eyes in the gloom for cattle-guards and switches that may bring me to
grief. Alas! I strain my eyes too far ahead, and trip over something
just under my feet, I know not what, some little thing, and go down to
earth in a long, stumbling fall. The next moment I am on my feet, but
the shack has me by the collar. I do not struggle. I am busy with
breathing deeply and with sizing him up. He is narrow-shouldered, and
I have at least thirty pounds the better of him in weight. Besides, he
is just as tired as I am, and if he tries to slug me, I'll teach him a
few things.

But he doesn't try to slug me, and that problem is settled. Instead,
he starts to lead me back toward the train, and another possible
problem arises. I see the lanterns of the conductor and the other
shack. We are approaching them. Not for nothing have I made the
acquaintance of the New York police. Not for nothing, in box-cars, by
water-tanks, and in prison-cells, have I listened to bloody tales of
man-handling. What if these three men are about to man-handle me?
Heaven knows I have given them provocation enough. I think quickly. We
are drawing nearer and nearer to the other two trainmen. I line up the
stomach and the jaw of my captor, and plan the right and left I'll
give him at the first sign of trouble.

Pshaw! I know another trick I'd like to work on him, and I almost
regret that I did not do it at the moment I was captured. I could make
him sick, what of his clutch on my collar. His fingers,
tight-gripping, are buried inside my collar. My coat is tightly
buttoned. Did you ever see a tourniquet? Well, this is one. All I have
to do is to duck my head under his arm and begin to twist. I must
twist rapidly--very rapidly. I know how to do it; twisting in a
violent, jerky way, ducking my head under his arm with each
revolution. Before he knows it, those detaining fingers of his will be
detained. He will be unable to withdraw them. It is a powerful
leverage. Twenty seconds after I have started revolving, the blood
will be bursting out of his finger-ends, the delicate tendons will be
rupturing, and all the muscles and nerves will be mashing and crushing
together in a shrieking mass. Try it sometime when somebody has you by
the collar. But be quick--quick as lightning. Also, be sure to hug
yours