Keith was straining every muscle now, but it was like running in a nightmare.  His arms moved up and down at a furious speed, but it seemed to him that the hand-car was glued to one spot.  It seemed, too, that it had been hours since they first discovered that the engine was after them, and he felt that he would soon be too exhausted to move another stroke.  Would the depot never never come in sight?

Just then they shot around the curve and caught sight of Jonesy at the depot switch, wildly beckoning with his cap and shouting for them to come on.  At that sight, with one supreme effort Keith put his fast-failing strength to the test, and sent the hand-car rolling forward faster than ever.  It shot past the switch that Jonesy had unlocked and off to the side-track, just as the train bore down upon them around the last bend.

There was barely time for Jonesy to set the switch again before it thundered on along the main track past the little depot.  Being a special, it did not stop.  As it went shrieking by, the engineer cast a curious glance at a hand-car on the side-track.  A little girl sat on it, a pretty golden-haired child with dark eyes big with fright, and her face as white as her dress.  He wondered what was the matter.

For a moment after the shrieking train whizzed by everything seemed deathly still.  Keith sat leaning against the embankment, white and limp from exhaustion and the excitement of his close escape.  Jonesy was panting and wiping the perspiration from his red face, for he had run like a deer to reach the switch in time.

“I couldn’t have held out a minute longer,” said Keith, presently.  “My arms felt like they had gone to sleep, and I was just ready to give up when I caught sight of you.  That seemed to give me strength to go on, when I saw what you were at and that it would only be a little farther to go before we would be safe.  Plow did you happen to be at the switch, and know how to set it?”

“Hain’t lived all my life around engine yards fer nothin’,” answered Jonesy.  “Why didn’t you jump off and flag the train?”

“I was so taken by surprise I didn’t think of that,” answered Keith.  “The only thing I knew was that we had to keep ahead of it as long as possible.  You’ve saved my life, Jones Carter, and I’ll never forget it, no matter what comes,”

“I’ve been rescued twice to-day,” said the Little Colonel, taking a deep breath as she began to recover from her fright.  “Jonesy ought to be a knight, too.”

“That’s so!” exclaimed Keith, springing to his feet.  “Come on and let’s go back to the barn.  We’ll tell our adventures, and then we’ll go through the ceremony of making Jonesy a Sir Something or other.  He’s certainly won his spurs.”

“Goin’ back on the hand-car?” asked Jonesy.

“Not much,” answered Keith, with a sickly sort of smile.  “Somehow such fast travelling doesn’t seem to agree with a fellow.  Walking is good enough for me.”