CHAPTER XV
"IT'S A BEAR!"
"What can we do?" It was Grace who asked the question. It was Betty, theLittle Captain, who answered it.
"We must stop the train," she said. "We must wave something red at it.Red always means danger."
"Mollie's tie," exclaimed Amy. Mollie was wearing a bright vermilionscarf knotted about the collar of her blouse.
"It isn't big enough," decided Betty. "But we must do something. That mansaid the train would come along soon. It's an express. A slow train mightnot go off the track, as the break is only a small one. But theexpress--"
She paused suggestively--apprehensively.
"There's a man!" cried Grace.
"A track-walker!" cried Betty. "Oh, he'll know what to do," and shedarted toward a man just appearing around the curve--a man with a sledge,and long-handled wrench over his shoulder.
"Hey! Hey!" Betty called. "Come here. There's a broken rail!"
The man broke into a run.
"What's that?" he called. "Got your foot caught in a rail? It's a frog--aswitch that you mean. Take off your shoe!"
"No, we're not caught!" cried Betty, in shrill accent. "The railis broken!"
The track-walker was near enough now to hear her correctly. And,fortunately, he understood, which might have been expected of him,considering his line of work.
"It's a bad break," he affirmed, as he looked at it, "Sometimes the heatof the sun will warp a rail, and pull out the very spikes by the roots,ladies. That's what happened here. Then a train--'twas the local fromDunkirk--came along and split the rail. 'Tis a wonder Jimmie Flannigandidn't see it. This is his bit of track, but his wife is sick and I saidI'd come down to meet him with a bite to eat, seein' as how she can't putup his dinner. 'Tis lucky you saw it in time, ladies."
"But what about the train?" asked Betty.
"Oh, I'll stop that all right. I'll flag it, and Jimmie and me'll put ina new rail. You'll be noticin' that we have 'em here and there along theline," and he showed them where, a little distance down the track, therewere a number placed in racks made of posts, so that they might not rust.
From his pocket the track-walker pulled a red flag. It seemed that hecarried it there for just such emergencies. He tied it to his pickhandle, and stuck the latter in the track some distance away from thebroken rail.
"The engineer'll see that," he said, "and stop. Now I'll go get Jimmieand we'll put in a new rail. You young ladies--why, th' railroadcompany'll be very thankful to you. If you was to stop here now, and thepassengers of the train were told of what you found--why, they might evenmake up a purse for you. They did that to Mike Malone once, when heflagged the Century Flier when it was goin' to slip over a broken bridge.I'll tell 'em how it was, and how you--"
"No--no--we can't stay!" exclaimed Betty. "If you will look after thebroken rail we'll go on. We must get to Broxton."
"Oh, sure, it'll not take the likes of you long to be doin' that,"complimented the man, with a trace of brogue in his voice. "You lookequal to doin' twice as much."
"Well, we don't want to be caught in the rain," spoke Mollie.
"Ah, 'twill be nothin' more than a sun shower, it will make yourcomplexions better--not that you need it though," he hastened to add."Good luck to you, and many thanks for tellin' me about this broken rail.'Tis poor Jimmie who'd be blamed for not seein' it, and him with a sickwife. Good-bye to you!"
The girls, satisfied that the train would be flagged in time, soon leftthe track, the last glimpse they had of the workman being as he hurriedoff to summon his partner to replace the broken rail.
That he did so was proved a little later, for when the girls were walkingalong the road that ran parallel to the railroad line some distancefarther on, the express dashed by at a speed which seemed to indicatethat the engineer was making up for lost time.
Several days later the girls read in a local paper of how the train hadbeen stopped while two track-walkers fitted a perfect rail in place ofthe broken one. And something of themselves was told. For thetrack-walker they had met had talked of the young ladies he had met, andthere was much printed speculation about them.
"I'm glad we didn't give our names," said Grace. "Our folks might haveworried if they had read of it."
"But we might have gotten a reward," said Mollie.
"Never mind--we have the five hundred dollars," exclaimed Grace.
"It may already be claimed," spoke Betty.
When they had seen the express go safely by, thankful that they had had asmall share in preventing a possible loss of life, the girls continued ontheir way. They stopped for lunch in a little grove of trees, brewingtea, and partaking of the cake, bread and meat Amy's cousin had provided.Amy had torn her skirt on a barbed wire fence and the rent was sewed upbeside the road.
The clouds seemed to be gathering more thickly, and with ratheranxious looks at the sky the members of the Camping and Tramping Clubhastened on.
"Girls, we're going to get wet!" exclaimed Mollie, as they passed across-road, pausing to look at the sign-board.
"And it's five miles farther on to Broxton!" said Amy. "Can weever make it?"
"I think so--if we hurry," said Betty. "A little rain won't hurt us.These suits are made to stand a drenching."
"Then let's walk fast," proposed Grace.
"She wouldn't have said that with those other shoes," remarkedAmy, drily.
"Got any candy?" demanded Mollie. "I'm hungry!"
Without a word Grace produced a bag of chocolates. It was surprising howshe seemed to keep supplied with them.
The girls were hurrying along, now and then looking apprehensively at thefast-gathering and black clouds, when, as they turned a bend in the road,Amy, who was walking beside Grace, cried out:
"Oh, it's a bear! It's a bear!"
"What's that--a new song?" demanded Mollie, laughing.
"No--look! look!" screamed Amy, and she pointed to a huge, hairy creaturelumbering down the middle of the highway.
The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale; Or, camping and tramping for fun and health Page 15