wires, and knew instantly that she was
after him.

An electric car would not be ploughing through the gloom at that rate,
without a ray of light, merely for the fun of the thing. A smile of
contempt curled the lip of the driver as he cut the reverse-lever back
to the first notch, put on the injector, and opened the throttle yet a
little wider.

The two machines were running almost neck and neck now. The trolley
cried, hissed, and spat fire in her mad effort to pass the locomotive. A
few stray sparks went out of the engine-stack, and fell upon the roof of
the racing car. At intervals of half a minute the fireman opened the
furnace door; and by the flare of light from the white-hot fire-box the
engine-driver could see the men on the teetering trolley,--the
motor-man, the conductor, the sheriff, and his deputy.

Slowly now the black flier began to slip away from the electric machine.

The driver, smiling across the glare of the furnace door at his silent,
sooty companion, touched the throttle again; and the great engine drew
away from the trolley, as a jack-rabbit who has been fooling with a
yellow dog passes swiftly out of reach of his silly yelp.

Now the men on the trolley heard the wild, triumphant scream of the iron
horse whistling for Hillier. The three directors of Le Roi had been
warned by wire, and were waiting, ready to board the engine.

The big wheels had scarcely stopped revolving when the men began to get
on. They had barely begun to turn again when the trolley dashed into
Hillier. The sheriff leaped to the ground and came running for the
engine. The wheels slipped; and each passing second brought the mighty
hand of the law, now outstretched, still nearer to the tail of the tank.
She was moving now, but the sheriff was doing better. Ten feet separated
the pursued and the pursuer. She slipped again, and the sheriff caught
the corner of the engine-tank. By this time the driver had got the sand
running; and now, as the wheels held the rail, the big engine bounded
forward, almost shaking the sheriff loose. With each turn of the wheels
the speed was increasing. The sheriff held on; and in three or four
seconds he was taking only about two steps between telegraph poles, and
then--he let go.

III

While the locomotive and the trolley were racing across the country the
Governor, who was engineering it all, invested another thousand. He
ordered another engine, and when she backed onto the coach the deputy