Kent was still standing at the trainmen"s wicket when Callahan sent the private car gently up to the trackhead of track eight. M"Tosh had been telephoning again, and the receiver and his party were on the way to the station.
"I was afraid you"d have to let the express go first," said Kent, when the train-master came his way again. "How much time have we?"
"Five minutes more; and they are on the way down--there they come."
Kent looked and saw a group of six men making for the nearest exit in the grille. Then he smote his fist into his palm.
"d.a.m.n!" he muttered; "they"ve got the vice-president of the Overland with them! That"s bad."
"It"s bad for Mr. Callafield," growled M"Tosh. "We"re in too deep now to back down on his account."
Kent moved nearer and stood in the shadow of the gate-keeper"s box, leaving M"Tosh, who was on the track platform, free to show himself. From his new point of espial Kent checked off the members of the party. When Major Guilford left it to come back for a word with M"Tosh, there were five others: the governor, his private secretary, Hawk, Halkett, the general superintendent, and the Overland"s vice-president.
"All ready, M"Tosh?" said the receiver.
"Ready and waiting, Major," was the bland reply.
"Who is our engineer?"
"Patrick Callahan."
"That wild Irishman? The governor says he"d as soon ride behind the devil."
"Callahan will get you there," said the train-master, with deliberate emphasis. Then he asked a question of his own. "Is Mr. Callafield going with you?"
"No. He came down to see us off. How is the fast mail to-night?"
"She"s just in--an hour and thirty-five minutes late."
The major swore pathetically. He was of the generation of railway officials, happily fast pa.s.sing, which cursed and swore itself into authority.
"That"s another five hundred dollars" forfeit to the Post-office Department! Who"s taking it west?"
"Tischer."
"Give him orders to cut out all the stops. If he is more than fifty-five minutes late at Bighorn, he can come in and get his time."
Tischer had just got the word to go, and was pulling out on the yard main line.
"I"ll catch him with the wire at yard limits," said M"Tosh. Then: "Would you mind hurrying your people a little, Major? The express is due to leave."
Guilford was a heavy man for his weight, and he waddled back to the others, waving his arms as a signal for them to board the car.
Kent saw the vice-president of the Overland Short Line shake hands with Bucks and take his leave, and was so intent upon watching the tableau of departure that he failed to notice the small boy in Western Union blue who was trying to thrust a telegram, damp from the copying rolls, into his hand.
"It"s a rush, sir," said the boy, panting from his quick dash across the track platforms.
It was Ormsby"s message from Breezeland; and while Kent was trying to grasp the tremendous import of it, M"Tosh was giving Callahan the signal to go. Kent sprang past the gate-keeper and gave the square of damp paper to the train-master.
"My G.o.d! read that!" he gasped, with a dry sob of excitement. "It was our chance--one chance in a million--and we"ve lost it!"
M"Tosh was a man for a crisis. The red tail-lights of the private-car special were yet within a sprinter"s dash of the trackhead, but the train-master lost no time chasing a ten-wheel flyer with "Red" Callahan at the throttle.
"Up to my office!" he shouted; and ten seconds later Kent was leaning breathless over the desk in the despatcher"s room while M"Tosh called Durgan over the yard limits telephone.
"Is that you, Durgan?" he asked, when the reply came. Then: "Drop the board on the mail, quick! and send somebody to tell Tischer to side-track, leaving the main line Western Division clear. Got that?"
The answer was evidently prompt and satisfactory, since he began again almost in the same breath.
"Now go out yourself and flag Callahan before he reaches the limits. Tell him the time-card"s changed and he is to run _west_ with the special to Megilp as first section of the mail--no stops, or Tischer will run him down. Leg it! He"s half-way down the yard, now!"
The train-master dropped the ear-piece of the telephone and crossed quickly to the despatcher"s table.
"Orders for the Western Division, Donohue," he said curtly, "and don"t let the gra.s.s grow. "Receiver"s car, Callahan, engineer, runs to Megilp as first section of fast mail. Fast mail, Hunt, conductor; Tischer, engineer; runs to the end of the division without stop, making up all time possible." Add to that last, "By order of the receiver.""
The orders were sent as swiftly as the despatcher could rattle them off on his key; and then followed an interval of waiting more terrible than a battle. Kent tried to speak, but his lips were parched and his tongue was like a dry stick between his teeth. What was doing in the lower yard?
Would Durgan fail at the pinch and mismanage it so as to give the alarm?
The minutes dragged leaden-winged, and even the sounders on the despatcher"s table were silent.
Suddenly the clicking began again. The operator at "yard limits" was sending the O.K. to the two train orders. So far, so good. Now if Callahan could get safely out on the Western Division...
But there was a hitch in the lower yard. Durgan had obeyed his orders promptly and precisely, and had succeeded in stopping Callahan at the street-crossing where Engineer Dixon had killed the farmer. Durgan climbed to the cab of the 1010, and the changed plan was explained in a dozen words. But now came the crux.
"If I stand here till you"d be bringin" me my orders, I"ll have the whole kit av thim buzzin" round to know fwhat"s the matther," said Callahan; but there was no other thing to do, and Durgan hurried back to the telegraph office to play the messenger.
He was too long about it. Before he got back, Halkett was under the cab window of the 1010, demanding to know--with many objurgations--why Callahan had stopped in the middle of the yards.
"Get a move on you!" he shouted. "The express is right behind us, and it"ll run us down, you d.a.m.ned bog-trotter!"
Callahan"s gauntleted hand shot up to the throttle-bar.
"I"m l"avin", Misther Halkett," he said mildly. "Will yez go back to the car, or ride wit" me?"
The general superintendent took no chance of catching the Naught-seven"s hand-rails in the darkness, and he whipped up into the cab at the first sharp cough of the exhaust.
"I"ll go back when you stop for your orders," he said; but a shadowy figure had leaped upon the engine-step a scant half-second behind him, and Callahan was stuffing the crumpled copy of the order into the sweat-band of his cap. The next instant the big 1010 leaped forward like a blooded horse under an unmerited cut of the whip, slid past the yard limits telegraph office and shot out upon the main line of the Western Division.
"Sit down, Misther Halkett, an" make yerself aisy!" yelled Callahan across the cab. ""Tis small use Jimmy Shovel"ll have for his box this night."
"Shut off, you Irish madman!" was the shouted command. "Don"t you see you"re on the wrong division?"
Callahan gave the throttle-bar another outward hitch, tipped his seat and took a hammer from the tool-box.
"I know where I"m goin", an" that"s more thin you know, ye blandhanderin"
divil! Up on that box wit" you, an" kape out av Jimmy Shovel"s road, or I"ll be the death av yez! Climb, now!"
It was at this moment that the tense strain of suspense was broken in the despatcher"s room on the second floor of the Union Station. The telephone skirled joyously, and the train-master s.n.a.t.c.hed up the ear-piece.
"What does he say?" asked Kent.