"I'm an old switchman. Tended switch for three years on a Western road. All we'll have to do is to reverse that switch," pointing to one a hundred feet farther on, "and there'll be a smash."
Barlow's breath came quick. He was not as daring a rascal as his companion.
"There's no one around. Look and satisfy yourself."
"Of course it's safe. Besides, if there's a wreck, there'll be booty for us. I'd like to rifle the pockets of that miner."
The train had been detained at a signal tower by a telegram, and this allowed the two adventurers to arrange their plans for wrecking it. But on trying to move the switch, Jones found a difficulty. He had not the necessary appliances.
"No, there's another way. Do you see that rock?"
He pointed to a square rock, weighing not far from a hundred pounds, by the side of the railroad.
"Yes, that'll do the business. But there's no time to lose. The train may come along at any moment. I don't know why it has been so delayed."
"Come along then, and help me move it. It is heavy."
The two rascals bent over and lifted the rock in concert.
They grumbled over the weight, neither of them being used to hard labor.
"I should think it weighed most half a ton," grumbled Barlow.
"Never mind. We will soon have it in position. Quick! I hear the train!"
The rumbling of the train could be heard at a considerable distance. The two scoundrels didn't trouble themselves about the possible, or probable consequences of their dastardly plot. They only thought of revenging themselves upon the men who had ejected them from the train, and they felt, besides, an animosity against Robert and his miner friend.
They thought themselves without a witness, but in this they were mistaken. The boy already mentioned, whom they had pursued ineffectually, had followed them at a distance, having a feeling of curiosity about them.
"I wonder what they're up to?" he soliloquized, as he watched them tampering with the switch. He could not quite understand the meaning of their movements. But when they took the rock, and between them conveyed it to the railroad track, and put it in the way of the coming train, he understood.
"I believe the mean chaps want to wreck the train," he said to himself.
He bethought himself of calling out to them, and trying to prevent their plot. But he was sure they would pay no attention to him, and besides there was no time. He could already hear the thundering sound of the approaching train.