he discovered on the track a huge rock, large enough to throw the train
off the track. How it got there was a mystery. Just in front there was a
steep descent on either side, the road crossing a valley, so that an
accident would probably cause the entire train to be thrown down the
embankment. Robert saw the danger at a glance, and it flashed upon him
at the same moment that the train was nearly due. He sprang to the rock,
and exerted his utmost strength to dislodge it. He could move it
slightly, but it was too heavy to remove. He was still exerting his
strength to the utmost when the whistle of the locomotive was heard.
Robert was filled with horror, as he realized the peril of the
approaching train, and his powerlessness to avert it.




CHAPTER XVII.


THE YOUNG CAPITALIST.

The cars swept on at the rate of twenty miles an hour, the engineer
wholly unconscious of the peril in front. Robert saw the fated train
with its freight of human lives, and his heart grew sick within him as
he thought of the terrible tragedy which was about to be enacted. Was
there any possibility of his averting it? He threw himself against the
rock and pushed with all the strength he could command. But, nerved as
he was by desperation, he found the task greater than he could compass.

And still the train came thundering on. He must withdraw to a place of
safety, or he would himself be involved in the destruction which