United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
Again and again Tom fed logs into the flames. Each time, Brown opened and
closed the door as though an instant's heat were too precious to be lost.
Brown's eyes were constantly upon the wavering needle of the steam gauge.
Andrews, sitting in the fireman's seat, was leaning from the window,
glancing first ahead and then back. Except for that first shout of triumph,
he had been calm and deliberate.
"Enough for now," shouted Brown. "Rest!"
Tom, panting and weak, climbed up beside Andrews and put his head out so
that the cool wind would strike it. The violent effort of dragging those
logs from the tender to the fire-box, together with the heat that played
upon him each time, had made his legs seem like jelly beneath him. But the
cool air revived him, and he watched Brown constantly for the signal that
more wood was needed. Once he looked back and saw Shadrack leaning from the
door of the boxcar. They waved excitedly to each other.
"Stop!" yelled Andrews to Knight.
Brown repeated the order. Knight, aroused from his intense purpose of
forcing the last ounce of speed out of the _General_, shut the throttle.
Brown gave the whistle a blast, and began twisting at the brake. Gradually
the train lost its speed. The men in the box-car leaned from the door,
asking why they were stopping.
"Come up here," yelled Andrews. "One of you men climb that telegraph pole
and knock the insulating cap off. Then break the wire."
A little fellow named Scott scrambled up the pole. Telegraph communications
were broken ahead of them.
"There's no telegraph station at Big Shanty," explained Andrews. "The best
they can do is to go on horseback to Marietta and telegraph to Atlanta for
an engine to pursue us. But they can't telegraph ahead of us! At Kingston
we'll meet the regular freight train, which is traveling against us. While
we're standing in the yards the door of the box-car must be closed. Do you
understand?"
"Yes!" shouted the men.
"Hop aboard then!"
Once again the _General_ started forward. Brown was at the throttle.
"More wood!" yelled Knight.
With Knight at the door of the fire-box, Tom yanked a half-dozen logs from
the tender and slid them into the flames.
"Not too fast," Andrews called to Brown. "We're out of the worst of it now,
and we don't want to get to Kingston too soon. Have to wait in the yards."
Brown nodded and slackened the speed. Now they could talk without yelling.
Presently Andrews ordered another stop and they drew up beside Moon
Station. He jumped out and came back with an iron bar. "Go ahead," he
yelled, then, pointing to the bar: "Good for pulling up track."
Tom added more fuel, and then stood at the door of the cab to see Allatoona
as they went through. Brown opened the throttle gradually. The outskirts of
the town whizzed past them; then the station. The crowd upon the station
platform, expecting that this was the passenger train, stared
uncomprehendingly as the train thundered in and out of town.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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