ith flying leaps, and, incredible as it may seem, that is
the way he did it. He had kicked off his shoes before starting, and now
ran with stockinged feet.

The occupants of the cab were as startled by his appearance beside them
as though he had been a ghost, and when his story was told the engineman
wanted to stop the train at once and go back to the assistance of the
imperilled messenger. Rod however succeeded in persuading him that, as
the messenger's fate was probably already decided, their only hope of
capturing the robber lay in carrying out Conductor Tobin's plan of running
at such speed that he would not dare jump from the train until a station
prepared for his reception was reached.

When the engineman finally agreed to this, and before he could utter
the remonstrance that sprang to his lips, Rodman clambered back over the
heaped-up coal of the tender, swung himself to the roof of the forward car
and began to retrace his perilous journey to the rear end of the train. He
argued that if Conductor Tobin's place was back there exposed to the
shots of a desperate man, his brakeman's place was beside him. Even if Rod
had not been a railroad boy, or "man," as he now called himself, his
natural bravery and sense of honor would have taken him back to that
coach. Ever since he had enlisted in the service that demands as strict
obedience as that required of a soldier and an equal contempt of danger,
this lad was doubly alert to the call of whatever he regarded as duty.
There is no service in the world, outside of the army, so nearly
resembling it in requirements and discipline as that of a railroad. It is
no place for cowards nor weaklings; but to such a lad as Rod Blake it adds
the stimulus of excitement and ever-present danger and the promise of
certain promotion and ample reward for the conscientious performance of
every-day duties.

So Rod, feeling in duty bound to do so, made his way back over the reeling
roofs of that on-rushing train to the side of his superior officer. As he
scrambled and slipped and leaped from car to car he fully realized the
imminent peril of his situation, but was at the same time filled with a
wild exhilaration and buoyance of spirits such as he had never before
known.

Conductor Tobin, standing just inside the coach door with pale face and
set lips, was amazed to see him. For a moment he fancied the lad had been
daunted by the task imposed upon him and had turned back without reaching
th