“Who is in charge of this train?” demanded the horseman, throwing himself from his mount without waiting for the animal to come to a stop.

“I am,” was the officer’s brief response.

“You are ordered to proceed forward at once under full speed,” was the command.  “The Tenth Royal Dragoons are hemmed in by at least 10,000 Germans two miles ahead, and unless you arrive in time they will all be slaughtered.”

The officer in command of the train looked hurriedly about.

“Hicks!” he called loudly.  “Hicks!”

There was no reply, and the officer shouted again.  Then Hal stepped forward.

“If Hicks was your engineer,” he said, “there is no use calling him.  He is dead.”

“Dead?” exclaimed the officer.

“Yes; that shell struck right beside him.  The fireman also was killed.”

“Great Scott!” exclaimed the officer.  “Then what am I to do?  Hicks was the only engineer with us right now.  The others have gone to their quarters, and by the time I could get them here it would be too late.”

“Well,” said Hal quietly, “if you want a volunteer, I am willing to tackle it for you.”

“You?”

“Yes; I have made some slight study of a locomotive, and, while I have never run one any great distance, I have ridden many miles in the cab of an engine in lumber camps in the United States.”

“And I can fire the engine,” Chester broke in.

“Well,” said the officer, “something has to be done at once; and, if you are willing to take a chance, so am I. Get aboard.”

He turned and rushed hurriedly back to his car, while Hal and Chester leaped aboard the locomotive.  In response to a signal, Hal released the brakes, gently opened the throttle, and the great engine began to forge slowly ahead.

Gradually the lad opened the throttle wider, and the huge locomotive commenced to gain momentum, until at last it was rushing along like some mad thing.  Chester, in the meantime, was busy with a shovel.

A moment, it seemed to the two lads, and the sound of firing rose above the roar of the locomotive, and the spat spat of bullets against the armored sides could be heard.  But Hal did not falter.  Rather, the engine seemed to leap ahead with even greater speed.

From the rear came the signal to slow down, and, under Hal’s firm hand, the terrific speed of the train was checked.  Then also from the rear there came the sound of firing.  The rapid-firers on the train had been unloosed, and their leaden messengers were spelling death in the ranks of the Germans, of whom the train was now in the middle.

Chester poked his head out the window of the cab, only to withdraw it quickly, as a bullet struck a quarter of an inch from his ear.  But in that one brief glance he had taken in the situation.

A short distance ahead he could make out a small knot of British, almost surrounded by Germans.  The British had taken their stand directly on the railroad track, the most strategic point for miles.  A clump of small trees screened them from the enemy on one side, but from the other three directions the Germans were pouring in their deadly fire.