Clive Cussler (8 page)

The airplane had no speedometer or air speed indicator, so they had no idea how fast they were flying, but they would have bet every penny in their piggy banks that they were going a hundred miles an hour.

Floopy was in dog heaven. Like a dog in a car leaning out an open window smelling the dozens of strange scents carried on the breeze, he sniffed and sniffed and sniffed. A basset hound's nose is very sensitive, and he soaked in the aromas from the surrounding countryside in a state of bliss.

They spotted two men up ahead pushing the levers of a go-devil up and down. A go-devil, you might like to know, is a handcar used on a railroad for transporting supplies and workers. It looks like a teeter-totter on a table. "Stop!" Casey burst out, and Vin Fiz abruptly slowed to a crawl. "Get off the tracks!" Casey yelled at the startled workers. "There is a runaway train coming down the track."

The railroad workmen looked confused for a moment but took Casey at his word, lifted the go-devil off the track and set it out of the way. Then Vin Fiz resumed flying over the track as if she were being chased by a giant airplane eater.

All of a sudden, a tunnel appeared ahead. Vin Fiz hesitated a few seconds before making her decision. Instead of flying up and over the big hill like any other logical thinking airplane, she frightened the wits out of the twins by flying right into the yawning mouth of the entrance. It was as black as the soot on their fireplace back home. All they could see was a pinprick of light far off in the distance. But Vin Fiz flew as straight as an arrow without touching the walls or ceiling of the tunnel until she burst into the sunlight again.

Their fears having flown away, Lacey and Casey were pleasantly surprised to see a small town rising up before them with a train station sitting beside the railroad. But that wasn't all. There beside the station, stopped, was a passenger train filled with people, a train facing in the direction of the approaching runaway locomotive.

The children stared in dismay because they could see that an awful calamity was in the making.

If the train, which was already huffing and puffing in front of the station, could not get out of the way in time, there would be a terrible pileup. Without losing a minute's worth of time, and beyond the twins' understanding, Vin Fiz dove toward the railroad track, leveled out in the nick of time and landed in front of the locomotive, coming to a stop a few inches in front of the cowcatcher, a funny-looking, sloping device mounted on the front of the locomotive to push unwanted snags off the tracks. Since cows were always behind fences and almost never walked on the railroad tracks, they rarely had the opportunity to be pushed out of the way by a locomotive's cowcatcher.

Casey and Lacey never argued, never questioned, nor ever doubted the airplane's enchanted wisdom. They ran up to the engineer, the conductor and the stationmaster, who were standing on the loading platform, and breathlessly told the story of the bandits and the runaway train.

The engineer and conductor did not doubt, or wonder if the children were telling a story. All they asked was if the train was approaching on the same track. When told it was, they stared at each other in alarm.

The conductor, in his black uniform and round cap, scratched his chin. "How odd," he said slowly.

"The Sunrise Express should be on the north-south track, not the east-west. Let's wire the station at the junction and see if it passed by."

Everyone rushed into the station, where the conductor ordered the man who operated the telegraph to wire the station up the line and ask if the Sunrise Express had passed by. The answer came back in seconds. No, the Sunrise Express had not passed. It was more than thirty minutes late.

"That can mean only one thing," the stationmaster said with alarm. "The bandits must have switched the Sunrise Express onto the wrong track. That's why, as the children have reported, it's headed in this direction."

"The Sunrise Express is pulled by a Super Morpheus 4-6-2," said the engineer. "She's the fastest engine on the line."

"A 4-6-2?" asked Casey, always fascinated by anything mechanical.

The engineer smiled. "That refers to the engine's wheels," he explained. "Four small ones up front, six drive wheels, and two small wheels in the rear, 4-6-2."

"Not good," said the conductor. "A Super Morpheus can run a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Our train, the Moonlight Limited, is much slower."

The engineer looked troubled indeed. "The nearest siding where we can pull off the main track is twelve miles away. We could never reach it in time. Not before colliding with the Sunrise Express if its throttle is set on full steam and with no hand on the brake."

"That's only if she makes it around Eternity Curve," said the conductor. "If the Sunrise Express is running at full throttle, she'll jump the tracks for sure before she reaches our train."

"We had better get everyone off the Moonlight Limited," said the stationmaster. "You haven't a moment to lose to back safely out of the way."

The conductor emptied the passenger cars in no time and waved his hand at the engineer, who was already in the cab waiting for the signal. He released the brakes, pushed the reverse lever to the full forward notch, opened the throttle and released the sand valves to drop sand between the drive wheels and the rails for more traction, things a steam locomotive engineer has to do to move the train. Then, with a great shower of steam and smoke, the locomotive began backing away from the station. Only the engineer and his fireman remained on the Moonlight Limited, ready to jump clear when the Sunrise Express came into view, providing she made it around Eternity Curve.

Lacey and Casey were standing there not knowing what to do as the train started to back away from them. They heard a strange sound behind them and turned to see that Vin Fiz was bouncing up and down on her wheels and shaking her wings.

"What is she doing?" Lacey wondered aloud.

"I think she's trying to tell us something," said Casey.

Lacey stared at the airplane's antics and suddenly she knew. "She wants us to get on board."

The twins leaped into their seats. As quickly as they tightened their seat belts, Vin Fiz lifted into the air.

The airplane made a wide half circle and soared over the tracks, going back the way she had come. Back through the tunnel, back through the corn and wheat fields, back past the telegraph poles. Her engine racing so fast it whirred and hummed, Vin Fiz devoured the miles in her dash toward the runaway train. Faster than the wind, faster than the birds, faster than the clouds scooting across the bright blue sky, she flew like a flash of light. If there had been a speed record, she would have broken it. As if she was a fox sniffing the wind, Vin Fiz pulled up until she was flying five hundred feet above the twin steel tracks. At that height the twins soon saw a wisp of black smoke far up the rails ahead.

"There it is!" Lacey shouted. "There's the Sunrise Express. And she's coming like a herd of mad buffaloes!"

And sure as the sun sets in the west, the Sunrise Express, with its steam locomotive spouting a thick column of black smoke from its tall smokestack, steam spurting from the sides and its big drive wheels turning faster than the eye could follow, came roaring down the track like some mechanical monster run amok.

When it rounded a long, wide curve, the passenger cars rocked back and forth and came within a cat's whisker of flying off the track. What would happen when it came to Eternity Curve, the sharp bend in the railroad track that ran along a deep canyon?

As the twins soared past the five passenger cars, the dining car and the baggage car, they could see the terrified passengers staring back at them through the windows, their eyes wide with fright. They gestured wildly at the twins as if there was something they could do to stop the train, but short of warning the Moonlight Limited at the station, Lacey and Casey were helpless. It was only a matter of minutes before the Sunrise Express and all the men, women and children inside would either collide with the other train or shoot off the rails.

"Is there nothing we can do?" moaned Lacey.

Before Casey could answer, Vin Fiz, again acting on her own, dipped downward and flew alongside the speeding train until she pulled even with the coal tender. "Vin Fiz," Casey shouted at the airplane, "what are you doing?"

But Vin Fiz did not answer. Not too surprising when you consider that airplanes can't talk, at least not like we do. She stayed beside the coal tender and eased closer and closer until she slipped over the top and hung there with the smoke streaming back and covering them all with soot. Then she dropped down until her wheels sank into the coal with a soft ka-thunk.

"What could Vin Fiz be up to?" Lacey wondered excitedly.

Casey was as lost as Lacey. "I can't believe she put us on the runaway train."

The twins well knew by now that Vin Fiz rarely did anything without a good reason. It soon dawned on them why the aircraft had set them atop the coal tender. "She wants us to stop the train," said Lacey.

"I agree, but what can we do to stop this thing?" replied Casey. "I've never read a manual on how to operate a locomotive."

"We've got to try. If we try, we can do. If we do, we can achieve and succeed."

Casey was not as optimistic as his sister. He had no doubt that it was up to him. His sister was wiser than he in many subjects, but he was smarter when it came to mechanical devices. It was obvious that Vin Fiz had put them on the coal tender so they could make their way to the locomotive's cab. As soon as they loosened their seat belts, they had to hang on for dear life because the speeding train was shaking and rattling violently. The noise of the drive wheels rolling over the rails, the fire in the firebox, the steam escaping out of the cylinders and the wind sweeping over the train was deafening.

Helping Lacey by keeping a protective arm around her, Casey crawled on his hands and knees over the black coal that was used to fuel the boiler of the locomotive. They finally reached the edge and tumbled down the coal pile to the floor of the tender. From there, holding tight to anything they could to keep from being thrown off the twisting and shuddering out-of-control train, they made their way into the engineer's cab.

The first thing that struck them was that the cab was as warm as a desert in summer and hot enough to bake an apple pie. They felt as if they had crawled into an oven. The fiery temperature came from the firebox, the blazing furnace that heated the water in the boiler into steam that powered the engine. The bandits must have shoveled in half a ton of coal before escaping, because the fire was very intense.

The second thing that overwhelmed them was the maze of valves, gauges and levers. There was a steam pressure gauge, a temperature gauge, a water gauge and at least ten valves, all painted red. And there were two long levers, one labeled REVERSE, which rose from the floor of the cab, and the other marked THROTTLE and extending from the top of the firebox.

"Oh no!" shouted Lacey over the clanging and hissing of the mighty engine. "Here comes the station!"

They only had time for a quick glance as the Sunrise Express roared past the station like a tornado, nearly blowing the conductor, the stationmaster and the passengers from the other train off the platform. And then the station and all the people were left behind with a big whoosh, and the Sunrise Express continued on its mad, crazy journey to certain destruction at Eternity Curve.

Casey stood his ground and studied the entanglement of valves and pipes that looked like the thick underbrush of a jungle. "Let's begin by turning the valves off," he said, trying to look as if he knew what he was doing.

"Which ones?" asked Lacey.

"Take your pick. I'll take the levers."

The valve handles were hot to the touch, but Lacey found a glove left behind by the abducted fireman and began spinning the handles as fast as she could. She knew that to close a valve, you had to turn it to the right. She remembered the words "lefty loosely, rightly tightly." At first nothing happened, but as she closed the fourth valve, a round one bigger than the others, she got lucky. Lacey had cut off the steam to the great pistons that plunged back and forth inside the cylinders that moved the drive wheels. "I think she's slowing," she burst happily.

"You did it!" Casey shouted. "She's definitely slowing."

Indeed, the train had slowed but not nearly enough. Lacey had stopped the power that drove the train, but its momentum kept it barreling over the tracks like a rocket ship.

Eternity Curve had come into sight, and so did the Moonlight Limited, which was just backing through the sharp turn, doing its best to switch tracks before the Sunrise Express crashed into it.

While Lacey was frantically twisting the valves, Casey had spent the time studying the labels on the various levers. He pulled the lever that was labeled BRAKES from the "off" to the "on" position.

"Hooray!" he shouted as the air brakes took hold on all the passenger cars and their steel wheels began skidding over the tracks.

It still wasn't enough to stop the runaway train. Though its speed was down to ninety miles an hour, that meant it was traveling at 132 feet a second—and it was only two hundred yards away from charging around Eternity Curve at a speed fast enough to jump the tracks. Casey then pulled the lever marked REVERSE to its full stop. The big drive wheels instantly reversed their whirl forward and began spinning in the opposite direction. But with steel wheels against steel rails, there was almost no grip between them, and the wheels merely skidded over the rails.

Eternity Curve was barely fifty yards away, and the other train only another fifty yards farther.

But Casey wasn't finished.

The throttle was already full open, with the engine running in reverse. As fast as his hands could move, he opened the two valves that were tagged SAND VALVES. Sand flowed onto the tracks beneath the drive wheels, giving them traction. Now able to grip the rails, the great steel wheels gained a firm hold and assisted the brakes in stopping the train.