Fuller was the first to regain his senses. He waved to the engineer to go ahead, and the _Texas_ swept down the road. Murphy and Fuller looked at one another in dumb amazement. "The inside rail of the curve," Murphy said at last. Fuller nodded in comprehension. The Texas, lunging around the curve, had been thrown against the outside rail; the inside wheels were lifted clear of the break. Had Andrews' men attacked the outside rail first, the race would have ended there, with the _Texas_ a battered wreck, strewn over the trackside. On the other hand, if Fuller and Murphy had seen the break sooner, a wreck would have been inevitable, for the locomotive, in checking its speed, would have rested evenly upon both rails. Luck was with the pursuers. Now the rain was falling in torrents. It stung the faces of the two Confederates as they sat on the tender, peering ahead, but they were oblivious to it. Oblivious, that is, except that they knew the rain would help them. The bridges would be the harder to burn. Time after time, they raised their arms and the _Texas_ came to a stop, while they jumped to the ground and threw ties from the track. The _General_ was gaining a greater lead each time the _Texas_ was checked. And seconds were counting. Fuller grabbed Murphy's arm, and said: "Look!" Far ahead they saw a black cloud of smoke. It was the _General_ approaching the Reseca bridge. CHAPTER TWELVE SPEEDING NORTHWARD Tom slammed the door of the fire-box and climbed up on the seat beside Andrews, who was leaning half out of the window, absorbed in his own thoughts. He glanced back, and turned to Tom. "They're still after us," he said grimly. "I want to drop the last box-car. Can you get back there and tell the men?" "Yes," answered Tom. "Why not break 'through the ends of all the cars--so we can get back and forth without having to climb over the roofs!" "All right--but hurry. Uncouple just as soon as you can." Tom climbed over the logs in the tender; then, balancing carefully, he stood up and clutched the top of the swaying freight car. In an instant he had swung himself over and was running down the roofs of the cars, silhouetted against the cloudy sky. When he reached the end of the train he lay on his stomach and looked down. The men were feeding the ties they had collected out upon the road through an opening they had broken in the rear of the car. The hole was large enough so that he could climb down the ladder, swing around the corner, and enter. [Illustration: The men were feeding the ties they had collected out upon the road through an opening they had broken in the rear of the car.] "Andrews wants to drop this car," he told the men when he was safe inside. "Break the other end open." They took one of the rails they had removed from the track north of Big Shanty, and with it as a battering-ram knocked a hole in the forward end; then in the end of the second car. They passed the remaining ties and the rails forward.