With one leap he cleared the cab, in two springs he had reached the doorway. The startled Ike Slump saw him disappear behind the locomotive. His bead-like eyes glowed.
Now was his chance. Leaning over between the two locomotives, he touched the lever Ralph had just shut off. The locomotive started towards its stall.
Directing his own forward, it went on its diverging course at routine slow speed.
This cleared the view from dog house and office. At that moment the foreman's strident tones belched out:
"Stop her! Where's the wiper?"
All eyes saw that the second locomotive was not manned. Some had witnessed Ralph's sensational disappearance.
Three or four made a run for the unguided locomotive. The foremost of the group sprang into the cab just as the tender struck the circular outer wall of the roundhouse.
He halted the engine, but not until the tender had smashed a hole out to daylight, taking one big window upon its back, and buried the rails under half a ton of brick and mortar.
Ike Slump descended from his locomotive serene as summer skies, as Forgan rushed up to the scene.
