"Wait until we get out in California, and
we can sleep out doors, while the folks back home are tending the
furnace fire."
The three boys were just about to enter the lavatory when the train
gave a sudden lurch, and then it began bumping along over the ties,
swaying from side to side. Every window in the car rattled as if it
would break, and the boys were so shaken up, that, to steady
themselves, they had to grasp whatever was nearest.
"We're off the track!" cried Ned.
"This-- is-- roughing-- it-- all right!" said Jerry, the words coming
out in jerks. "There's-- been-- an-- accident!"
"A-- whole-- lot-- of-- 'em-- by-- the-- way-- it-- feels to-- me,"
declared Jerry. "I-- wonder--"
Just then the train came to a stop, the car the boys were in being
tilted at quite an angle.
"Let's see what happened," suggested Bob, going to the door. His
companions followed him, and, from various berths the passengers began
emerging, in different stages of undress. They looked frightened.
"Well, at any rate, none of us are killed," said Professor Snodgrass,
as he came down the aisle, fully dressed, for he had arisen early to
continue his reading about horned toads. "What is the matter, boys?"
"We're just going to find out," said Jerry, as he went down the steps
and walked along the track toward the engine, about which a crowd of
passengers and train men were gathered.
"What's the trouble?" asked Bob of a brakeman who was running toward
the rear end of the train with a red flag.
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