approaching.

Fuller and Murphy saw the obstruction of the broken rail in time, by
reversing their engine, to prevent wreck, but the hindrance was for the
present insuperable. Leaving all their men behind, they started for a
second foot-race. Before they had gone far they met the train we had
passed at Adairsville and turned it back after us. At Adairsville they
dropped the cars, and with locomotive and tender loaded with armed men,
they drove forward at the highest speed possible. They knew that we were
not many minutes ahead, and trusted to overhaul us before the express
train could be safely passed.

But Andrews had told the powder story again with all his skill, and
added a direct request in peremptory form to have the way opened before
him, which the Confederate conductor did not see fit to resist; and just
before the pursuers arrived at Calhoun we were again under way. Stopping
once more to cut wires and tear up the track, we felt a thrill of
exhilaration to which we had long been strangers. The track was now
clear before us to Chattanooga; and even west of that city we had good
reason to believe that we should find no other train in the way till we
had reached Mitchel's lines. If one rail could now be lifted we would be
in a few minutes at the Oostenaula bridge; and that burned, the rest of
the task would be little more than simple manual labor, with the enemy
absolutely powerless. We worked with a will.

But in a moment the tables were turned. Not far behind we heard the
scream of a locomotive bearing down upon us at lightning speed. The men
on board were in plain sight and well armed. Two minutes--perhaps
one--would have removed the rail at which we were toiling; then the game
would have been in our own hands, for there was no other locomotive