ONE HUNDRED MILES AN HOUR!
The sheriff's concluding argument at once prevailed. Snyder was so eager
to witness his rival's humiliation and to hear the Superintendent
pronounce his sentence of dismissal from the company's employ, that he
would have sacrificed much of his own dignity rather than forego that
triumph. As matters now stood he could not see how Rod, even though he
should not be convicted of stealing the missing diamonds, could clear
himself from the suspicion of having done so.
Neither could poor Rod see how it was to be accomplished. For mile after
mile of that long ride back toward New York he sat in silence, puzzling
over the situation. In spite of the attempts of the sheriff and Conductor
Tobin to cheer him up, he grew more and more despondent at the prospect of
having to go through life as one who is suspected. It was even worse than
being locked into a prison cell, for he had known that could not last
long, while this new trouble seemed interminable.
The lad's sorrowful reflections were interrupted by an ejaculation from
the sheriff who sat beside him. On that gentleman's knee lay an open
watch, at which he had been staring intently and in silence for some time.
He had also done some figuring on a pad of paper. Finally he uttered a
prolonged "Wh-e-w!"
Both Rod and Conductor Tobin looked at him inquiringly.
"Do you know," he said, "that we have just covered a mile in forty-two
seconds, and that we are travelling at the rate of eighty-five miles an
hour?"
"I shouldn't be surprised," replied Conductor Tobin, quietly; "I heard Mr.
Appleby tell the engineman at the last stop that if better time wasn't
made pretty soon he'd go into the cab himself and show 'em how to do it.
The idea of his talking that way to an old driver like Newman. Why, I
don't believe he knows the difference between a throttle and an injector.
A pretty figure he'd cut in a cab! Newman didn't answer him a word, only
gave him a queer kind of a look. Now he's hitting her up for all she's
worth, though, and, judging from appearances, Mr. Appleby wishes he'd held
his tongue."
Snyder certainly was very pale, and was clutching the arms of his seat as
though to keep himself from being flung to the floor during the frightful
lurchings of the car as it spun around curves.
"But isn't it middling dangerous to run so fast?" asked the sheriff, as
the terrific speed seemed to increase.
"Not so very," answered the Conductor. "I don't consider that there is any
more danger at a high rate of speed than there is at forty or fifty miles
an hour! If we were to strike a man, a cow, a wagon, or even a pile of
ties while going at this rate we'd fling the obstacle to one side like a
straw and pay no more attention to it. If we were only doing fifteen or
twenty miles though, instead of between eighty and ninety, any one of
these things would be apt to throw us off the track. I tell you,
gentleman, old man Newman is making things hum though! You see he has got
number 385, one of the new compound engines. He claims that she can do one
hundred miles an hour just as well as not, and that he is the man to get
it out of her. He says he can stand it if she can. He made her do a mile
in 39-1/4 seconds on her trial trip, and claims that about a month ago
when he was hauling the grease wagon[1] she did 4-1/10 miles in 2-1/2
minutes, which is at the rate of 98.4 miles an hour.[2] His fireman backs
him up, and says he held the stop-watch between stations. The paymaster
was so nearly scared to death that time that Newman was warned never to
try for his hundred-mile record again without special orders. Now I
suppose he considers that he has received them and is making the most of
his chance."
[1] Pay-car.
[2] This time has actually been made by an American locomotive on an
American railroad.--K. M.
"It's awful!" gasped Snyder, who had drawn near enough to the group to
overhear the last of Conductor Tobin's remarks. "The man must be crazy.
Isn't there some way of making him slow down?"
"Not if he is crazy, as you suggest, sir," replied Conductor Tobin, with a
sly twinkle in his eyes. "It would only make matters worse to interfere
with him now, and all we can do is to hope for the best."
"It's glorious!" shouted Rod, forgetting all his troubles in the
exhilaration of this wild ride. "It's glorious! And I only hope he'll
make it. Do you really think a hundred miles an hour is within the
possibilities, Mr. Tobin?"
"Certainly I do," answered the Conductor. "It not only can be done, but
will be, very soon. I haven't any doubt but what by the time the Columbian
Exposition opens we shall have regular passenger trains running at that
rate over some stretches of our best roads, such as the Pennsylvania, the
Reading, the New York Central and this one. Moreover, when electricity
comes into general use as a motive power I shall expect to travel at a
greater speed even than that. Why, they are building an electric road now
on an air line between Chicago and St. Louis, on which they expect to make
a hundred miles an hour as a regular thing."
"I hope I shall have a chance to travel on it," said Rod.
"I have heard of another road," continued Conductor Tobin, "now being
built somewhere in Europe, Austria I believe, over which they propose to
run trains at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five miles an hour."
Here the conversation was interrupted by Snyder Appleby, who, in a frenzy
of terror that he could no longer control, shouted "Stop him! Stop him! I
order you to stop him at once!"
"All right, sir, I'll try," answered Conductor Tobin, with a scornful
smile on his face. Just as he lifted his hand to the bell-cord there came
a shriek from the locomotive whistle. It was instantly followed by such a
powerful application of brakes that the car in which our friends were
seated quivered in every joint and seemed as though about to be wrenched
in pieces.
As the special finally came to a halt, and its occupants rushed out to
discover the cause of its violent stoppage, they found the hissing
monster, that had drawn them with such fearful velocity, standing
trembling and panting within a few feet of one of the most complete and
terrible wrecks any of them had ever seen.