The telegraph operator who had been dragged into the chase at
Calhoun ran to the station and pounced upon a telegraph key. Chattanooga
answered him and he hammered out half of the message; then the wire "went
dead." Andrews had broken the lines. But half of the message was enough to
warn Chattanooga. The Commander of the Confederate troops rushed his men
out to block the tracks against the raiders.
Fuller, relieved of the two box-cars, ordered the _Texas_ ahead, and they
swung out from the Dalton station.
"How about the tunnel?" Murphy asked.
Fuller thought for a moment. "We'll go straight through," he answered.
"You don't think that they'll drop that last box-car there?" asked Murphy.
"We'll have to take the risk. A minute's delay will be enough for them to
destroy the bridge."
Murphy nodded and climbed up beside Fuller on the edge of the tender. Both
of them realized that they would be in the very center of the wreck if
Andrews had abandoned his last freight car in the tunnel. Yet they sat
there, coolly and indifferently, awaiting whatever might come of the risk
they were taking.
"If I were leading those men," said Fuller, "I would rush for the bridge,
and not bother about the tunnel.
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