"Better rest awhile, Dave," Pop Bybee suggested gently, bending over the boy to wipe the cold drops of sweat from his forehead.
"No, I'll get it over with," David protested weakly. "There's not much more to tell. They couldn't see me--had no idea I was trailing them in the handcar. But I could keep them in sight because of their headlights. I guess they'd have got away, though, if a freight train hadn't come along just then and blocked the road. They were just reaching the grade crossing where the state road cuts the railroad tracks when this freight came charging down on us--"
"But you, David!" Sally shuddered, bowing her head on his hand, the fingers of which curled upward weakly to cup her face. "You were on the track. Did the train hit you? Oh!"
"Of course not!" David grinned at her. "I'm here, and I wouldn't have been if the engine had hit the handcar when I was on it. But I'm afraid the railroad company is minus one handcar this morning. The cowcatcher of the freight engine scooped it up and tossed it aside as if it had been a baby's go-cart, but I'd already jumped and was tumbling down the bank into a nice bed of wildflowers.
"Pretty wet after the storm, so I didn't go to sleep. I'd jumped to the other side of the tracks and was hidden from Steve's car while the freight train rolled on. They didn't stop to hold a post-mortem over the handcar. Probably figured a tramp had been bumming a free ride on it and had got his, and good enough for him.
"When the train had passed I was waiting by the road for Steve's car. I guess he was pretty badly surprised when I hopped upon the running board and grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the car into a ditch, nearly turning it over. I don't remember much of what happened then, what with Nita screeching and Steve swearing and popping his gun at me. But somehow I managed to get his revolver--didn't know I'd been shot at first--and dragged him out of the car.
"It must have been a pretty good fight, for Nita decided to beat it before it was finished. She started off with one of the suitcases but it was too heavy and she dropped it in the road and lit out. If Nita could dance as well as she can run," David interrupted himself to grin at Bybee, "she'd be a real loss to the outfit."