e
bridge. He stopped the engine just beyond, and he and his
companions watched it hopefully. The flames curled fiercely
upward. Dense smoke poured out at each end of the covered
bridge. Success seemed to be at length in their hands. But
the flames failed to do their work. The roof of the bridge
had been soaked by recent rains and resisted the blazing
heat. The roaring flames were uselessly licking the wet
timbers when the pursuing engine came dashing up. Fuller did
not hesitate for a minute. He had the heart of a soldier in
the frame of a conductor. Into the blinding smoke his engine
was daringly driven, and in a minute it had caught the
blazing car and was pushing it forward. A minute more and it
rolled into the open air, and the bridge was saved. Its
timbers had stubbornly refused to burn.

This ended the hopes of the fugitives. They had exhausted
their means of checking pursuit. Their wood had been all
consumed in this fruitless effort; their steam was rapidly
going down; they had played their last card and lost the
game. The men sprang from the slowed-up engine. The engineer
reversed its valves and followed them. Into the fields they
rushed and ran in all directions, their only hope being now
in their own powers of flight. As they sped away the engines
met, but without damage. The steam in the stolen engine had
so fallen that it was incapable of doing harm. The other
engine had been stopped, and the pursuers were springing
agilely to the ground, and hurrying into the fields in hot
chase.

Pursuit through field and forest was as keen and
unrelenting as it had been over iron rails. The Union lines
were not far distant, yet not a man of the fugitives
succeeded in reaching them. The alarm spread with great
rapidity; the whole surrounding country was up in pursuit;
and before that day ended several of the daring raiders were
prisoners in Confederate hands. The others buried themselves
in woods and swamps, lived on roots and berries, and
ventured from their hiding-places only at night. Yet they
were hunted with unwearying persistence, and by the end of a
week all but two had been captured. These two had so
successfully eluded pursuit that they fancied themselves out
of danger, and became somewhat careless in consequence. As a
result, in a few days more they, too, fell into the hands of
their foes.

A court-martial was convened. The attempt had been so
daring, and so nearly successful, the injury intended so
gre