. No sign of her yet."

"That's all right," said the man who had served the B. and O. "Tell them
to side-track her for half an hour, anyway, after your loco comes through.
It's necessary. Don't worry 'bout any questions, but tell them to keep us
a clear road, now."

The agent, who saw that the other man was prepared to do the work himself,
complied, and the latter once more nodded when the instrument clicked out
the answer.

"Make out your bill," said Grant, taking a wallet from his pocket.

"No," said the agent; "we're going to have the law of you."

Grant laughed. "It strikes me there is very little law in this country
now, and your company would a good deal sooner have the dollars than a
letter telling them you had let us take one of their locomotives away from
you."

"That," said the agent reflectively, "sounds quite sensible. Well, I'll
take the dollars. It doesn't commit us to anything."

The bills were counted over, and as the men went out Grant turned in the
doorway. "It would not be advisable for you to wire any of the folks along
the line to stop us," he said. "We are going through to Boynton as fast as
your engineer can shove his loco along, and if anybody switched us into a
side-track it would only mean the smashing up of a good deal of the
company's property."

He had gone out in another moment, and, in a few more, climbed into the
locomotive cab, while somebody coupled on a calaboose in the rear. Then,
he showed the engineer several bills and the agent's receipt together.

"If you can hold your tongue and get us through to Boynton five minutes
under the mail schedule time, the dollars are yours," he said.

The engineer looked doubtful for a moment, then, his eyes twinkling, he
took the bills.

"Well," he said, "you've got the agent's receipt, and the rest is not my
business. Sit tight, and we'll show you something very like flying
to-night."

Another man flung open the furnace door, a sudden stream of brightness
flashed out as he hurled in coal, the door shut with a clang, and there
was a whirr of slipping wheels as the engineer laid his hand on the lever.
The great locomotive panted, and Grant, staring out through the glasses,
saw a blinking light slide back to them. Then, the plates beneath him
trembled, the hammering wheels got hold, and the muffled clanging and
thudding swelled into a rhythmic din. The light darted past them, the
filmy whiteness which had streamed down through the big hea