ell, reached into the tender, seized a big
sledgehammer lying there and braced back.

The young fireman was amazed and fairly terrified at his movements,
for Lyle began raining blows on lever, throttle and everything in the
way of machinery inside of the cab.

Past the red light, blotting it out, sped the train, turning a curve.
Ralph anticipated a waiting or a coming train, but, to his relief, the
rails were clear. Ahead, however, there was a great glow, and he now
understood what the warnings meant.

The road at this point for two miles ran through a marshy forest, and
this was all on fire. Ralph gained the tender.

"Back, back!" roared Lyle, facing him, weapon in hand. "She's fixed to
go, can't stop her now. Whoop!"

With deep concern the young fireman noted the disabled machinery.

Half-way between centers, the big steel bar on the engineer's side of
the locomotive had snapped in two and was tearing through the cab like
a flail, at every revolution of the driver to which it was attached.

Just as Ralph jumped down from the tender, the locomotive entered the
fire belt--in a minute more the train was in the midst of a great
sweeping mass of fire. The train crew, blinded and singed, retreated.
Ralph trembled at a sense of the terrible peril that menaced.

Lyle had drawn back from the lever or he would have been annihilated.
Then as the fire swept into his face, he uttered a last frightful
yell, gave a spring and landed somewhere along the side of the track.

The young fireman was fairly appalled. Such a situation he had never
confronted before. The cab was ablaze in a dozen different places. The
tops of the cars behind had also ignited. Ralph did not know what to
do. Even if he could have stopped the train, it would be destruction
to do so now.

Suddenly the locomotive dove through the last fire stretch. Ahead
somewhere Ralph caught the fierce blast of a locomotive shrieking for
orders. For life or death the train must be stopped.

He flew towards the throttle but could not reach it safely. The great
bar threatened death. Twice he tried to reach the throttle and drew
back in time to escape the descending bar. At a third effort he
managed to slip the latch of the throttle, but received a fearful
graze of one hand. Then, exhausted from exertion and excitement, the
young fireman saw the locomotive slow down not a hundred yards from a
stalled train.

The passenger coaches were soon vacated by the passengers,