him, and with drooping head, he turned towards the car, when the engineer of the train, a genuine Yankee, named Forster, raising his voice, said, "Gentlemen, there might be a way of passing."
"On the bridge?" asked a passenger.
"On the bridge."
"With our train?" asked the colonel.
"With our train."
Passepartout stopped, and devoured the engineer's words.
"But the bridge threatens to fall!" continued the conductor.
"It doesn't matter," replied Forster. "I believe that by rushing the train over at its maximum speed we would have some chances of passing."
"The devil!" exclaimed Passepartout.
But a certain number of the passengers were immediately carried away by the proposition. It pleased Colonel Proctor particularly. That hot-head found the thing very feasible. He recalled, even, that engineers had had the idea of passing rivers without bridges, with trains closely coupled, rushing at the height of their speed, etc. And, finally, all those interested took sides with the engineer's views.
"We have fifty chances for passing," said one.
"Sixty," said another.
"Eighty! Ninety out of one hundred!"
Passepartout was perplexed, although he was willing to try anything to accomplish the passage of Medicine creek, but the attempt seemed to him a little too "American."
"Besides," he thought, "there is a much simpler thing to do, and these people don't even think of it." Monsieur," he said to one of the passengers, "the way proposed by the engineer seems a little hazardous to me, but———"
"Eighty chances!" replied the passenger, turning his back to him.
"I know very well," replied Passepartout, addressing another gentleman, "but a simple reflection———"
"No reflection, it is useless!" replied the American addressed, shrugging his shoulders, "since the engineer assures us that we will pass!"
"Without doubt," continued Passepartout, "we will pass, but it would perhaps be more prudent———"
