The Little Lady of The Big House by Jack London Chapter 5 Page 7

brake-man who should have known better. The trestle spanned a dry ravine. Young Dick looked down at the rocks seventy feet below and demurred.

“There’s room on the trestle,” he said; “but what if the train starts up?”

“It ain’t goin’ to start — beat it while you got time,” the brakeman insisted. “The engine’s takin’ water at the other side. She always takes it here.”

But for once the engine did not take water. The evidence at the inquest developed that the engineer had found no water in the tank and started on. Scarcely had the two boys dropped from the side-door of the box-car, and before they had made a score of steps along the narrow way between the train and the