Munroe Kirk
The Blue Dragon: A Tale of Recent Adventure in China

CHAPTER XXIII
STEALING A LOCOMOTIVE

Jo's plan was communicated to Rob in a few breathless words as the lads dashed up the track towards the head of the train. The crowd of soldiers, not yet understanding that they were fugitives, and awed by the sight of Jo's uniform, parted before them, only stupidly wondering at their haste. Rob's mind instantly seized the possibilities of Jo's suggestion, and as they ran he gasped:

"You get aboard, Jo, while I cut it loose. Persuade the driver to start her. Never mind me. I'll climb aboard somehow."

Even as he spoke, Rob turned in between the locomotive and the foremost car, which already was filled with Chinese craning their necks over the side to see what was going on. Fortunately, there were no patent couplers to be dealt with, and no pneumatic tubes, for on this primitive train brakes were applied by hand, while the connections were simple link-and-pin affairs that any one could understand. Rob pulled the pin and scrambled across the bumpers to the opposite side of the train. As he did so his flowing priestly robe caught and was torn from his shoulders, leaving him fully revealed in unmistakable European costume.

Instantly there arose a yell of "Fan kwei!" from the soldiers in the car above him, but a sudden shot from his pistol cut it short and sent those who were uttering it tumbling over backward in pell-mell consternation.

The locomotive already was moving as Rob ran forward and sprang into the cab, where he was just in time to break up a most startling tableau. The Chinese engine-driver, with hand on the open throttle, was cowering beneath the threatening muzzle of Jo's cocked revolver. The latter's back was turned, and behind him, with an uplifted bar of iron, crept the overlooked fireman. In another instant the blow would have fallen, and the whole course of Chinese history might have been changed; but, as it was about to descend, Rob caught the unsuspecting man by his convenient pig-tail and jerked him violently backward, while the murderous bar clattered to the iron floor of the cab. The next moment Rob had bundled the fireman overboard, and the locomotive sprang forward as though relieved of a clogging weight.

A tremendous clamor of yells and shooting rose from behind, while half a dozen bullets splintered the wood-work and shivered the glass of the cab; but no one was hurt, and no one minded the fusillade except the poor engine-driver, who was scared almost white. Rob sprang on top of the coal in the tender and waved his pistol defiantly above his head; at the same time shouting derisive farewells to the baffled soldiers, many of whom were hopelessly running after the vanishing locomotive. He remained there until these dwindled to the size of distracted ants wandering aimlessly about a ruined hill, and then he returned to the cab, where Jo still remained on guard.

"I say, old man," cried the young American, speaking loudly to make himself heard above the roar and rattle of the on-rushing engine, "this beats anything I've struck in China yet. Isn't it the greatest bit of luck in the world? and isn't it fun running off with a locomotive? I never before stole anything worth speaking of, and I'm glad my first burglary is something worth while. I don't suppose it comes under the head of burglary, though. Perhaps we'd be called sneak thieves, only I hardly like the sound of that, either. How would highwaymen do, or stage robbers, or land pirates. That's it, Jo; we are land pirates who have just captured a ship and made her crew walk the plank, and now – "

"I'm hungry," interrupted the young Chinese, who, never having read any pirate stories, didn't know what his companion was talking about, "and thirsty," he added, looking longingly at the faucet of the tender's water-tank.

"So am I," shouted back Rob. "Make your slave there slow down a bit, for we're in no hurry anyhow, and I'll get you a drink."

As the speed with which they had started began to slacken, Rob suddenly added:

"Great Scott! There's another thing I hadn't thought of. Stop her, quick, Jo! We've got to cut that telegraph-wire, or they'll run us off the track at the first station. What a chucklehead I am!"

Before the locomotive had come to a stand-still the active young fellow was off and was swarming up a short, iron telegraph-pole near the track. Thus it was owing to his prompt action that a hurry message at that moment clicking into the Ting-Chow station, a few miles ahead, was interrupted after the words, "Look out for engine; open – " Probably the sender at Hsu River would have added, "derailing switch," and then proceeded to give enlightening particulars of what had happened, if he had been allowed the opportunity; but he was not, and the Ting-Chow operator was left to think what he pleased. The latter, however, had been warned that for some unknown reason an engine might be expected from the south, so he side-tracked and held a train of empty cars that was just about to proceed in that direction. Thus he left an open track for our friends, and saved them an awkward if not disastrous meeting.

Without knowing whether he had cut the wire in time to prevent mischief or not, Rob returned to the locomotive, got a big, satisfying drink of water from the tank, chucked a lot of coal into the furnace, assumed a new disguise in shape of the cap, jumper, and overalls of the engine-driver, which he calmly appropriated to his own use; and as the great, swaying machine again sped forward over the shining rails he reopened conversation with his comrade.

"How far is the line open?" he asked.

"To Pao-Ting-Fu, at any rate," replied Jo, "and perhaps some distance beyond."

"That's the worst place between here and Pekin, isn't it?"

"Yes; the Boxers are in complete control of the city, and more foreigners have been killed there than at any other point in this province."

"Then it won't be good for our health to stop there too long."

"I should think not!"

"How far is it from Pao-Ting-Fu to Pekin?"

"About three hundred li."

"That's about a hundred miles – three or four days if we have to walk it, two days if we can steal a couple of ponies, and less than half a day if we only could carry this old rattle-trap the whole distance," mused Rob. Then, again speaking to Jo, he said:

"Ask your friend what's wrong with the road beyond Pao-Ting-Fu?"

Jo did as requested, and after a short conversation with the frightened engine-driver reported that two bridges had been destroyed, one at Ting Shing, about half-way between Pao-Ting-Fu and Pekin, and the other at Lu Kow, only a few miles from the capital.

"The first would be enough to stop us," said Rob, gloomily. "What other damage has been done?"

"He says not much, only a rail torn up here and there."

"Well," said Rob, "we might as well play this game for all it is worth; so, suppose we make the operator at the next station telegraph for a car with a dozen or so of rails on it, and a gang of track-layers, to be ready for us at Pao-Ting-Fu. Sign the message with the biggest name you can think of in this part of the country; say it is a matter of life or death to the Emperor himself for this engine to get as near Pekin as possible in the shortest possible time. It will be an awful bluff, of course, but bluffs sometimes work when you least expect them to. At any rate, we won't lose anything by trying. Hello! There's a station now, and a train headed this way on the siding. Lucky for us that it waited here, for there's apt to be trouble when two trains meet on a single track. I hope it doesn't mean, though, that they have heard of our coming. You run in and do your best with the telegraph man, while I stay here and keep this chap from getting busy. Better tell the agent, or whatever you call him, to rush that train out in a hurry, so its hands won't come rubbering round us for news. See if you can't pick up something to eat, too, for I am starving. We'll run up and take in water from that tank while you are gone. I'll make our friend here sabe somehow what I want him to do."

Rob's bluff worked to perfection. The waiting train pulled out the moment they had passed the siding switch, and went on its southward way without carrying a suspicion of anything having gone wrong. Rob got his tank full of water without trouble, and had hardly done so when Jo reappeared, hurrying towards the locomotive. He was followed by a boy bearing a basket full of cooked rice and Chinese cakes. The young officer had ordered the few employés of the station about with such a lordly air that they had obeyed him without question.

"Did they know we were coming?" asked Rob, as the engine again gathered headway.

"Yes," replied Jo. "They had received part of a message, telling them to look out for us. Then it was cut off, and they were a good deal troubled at not hearing a word from the south since."

"Good!" cried Rob. "We cut the wire just in time then."

"Yes. I told them I saw somebody destroying the line, and said I thought he was a Boxer."

"So I am," laughed Rob, munching a Chinese sweetcake as he spoke. "But how about the message to Pao-Ting?"

"Oh, he sent it off all right. That is, I suppose he did. Anyhow, he seemed a good deal impressed by the name I signed to it."

"What name was it?"

"Yu-Hsien."

"What! The governor of Shan-Si! The big man of all the Boxers! You didn't have the cheek!"

"I did, though," declared Jo, stoutly; "and if it don't get us what we want at Pao-Ting, there isn't another name in all China that would."

They were barely out of sight of the station before they came to a bridge across a small river. Here, as the telegraph-line was strung on it within easy reach, the locomotive was brought to a stand-still, while Rob again tried his hand at wire-cutting. Jo leaned from the cab to watch him, thus relaxing for a minute his close watch of their useful prisoner.

As Rob came back, calling out: "Let her go again, I'm aboard," Jo turned to give the necessary order, only to discover to his consternation that the engine-driver was nowhere in sight. In vain did they search through the cab and its tender, in the water-tanks, and even under the coal. In vain did they look up and down the track, at the bridge on both sides, even staring down into the water twenty feet below them. The man had disappeared, so far as they could discover, as absolutely as though the ground had opened and swallowed him.

"Well," remarked Rob, in a melancholy tone, "that beats anything I ever experienced. We certainly have got the old wagon to ourselves now, and the question is, what shall we do with it?"

"I say run it," replied Jo. "I've watched him until I know how to start and stop, and how to go slow or fast. I'll do that part if you will keep up the fire, and I don't believe there is anything else to be looked out for."

"All right," agreed Rob, "go ahead. I don't like it, and I expect we shall come to grief; but I can stand it if you can."

CHAPTER XXIV
THE TIMELY EXPLOSION OF A BOILER

Greatly depressed by the unexplained disappearance of their Chinese engine-driver, our lads, ignorant of everything connected with machinery, set themselves the hazardous task of running a locomotive. They got it started without difficulty, and ten minutes later were running at tremendous speed over the level line that extended without grade or curve as far as they could see. While Rob shovelled coal until his back ached and his face was as black as that of a negro, Jo occupied the engine-driver's seat and anxiously stared ahead. Neither of them spoke, for the strain on their nerves was too great, since each knew that at any moment they were likely to be blown up, flung from the track, or sent plunging through some weakened bridge. They were facing death in a dozen forms, but stuck to their posts without flinching, for they knew that a like fate, absolutely certain, awaited the unprotected foreigner who should be caught attempting to cross those plains on foot.

So they drove on, mile after mile, dashing past the station of Sing Yang without a pause or even a slow-down, and shortly before sunset came within sight of the gray walls of Pao-Ting-Fu.

"Shut her off, Jo. We've done the act so far all right," said Rob, speaking jerkily and with ill-repressed excitement. "Now comes the real danger. What a crowd there is about the station. There's an engine, though, with a single car attached. See! Waiting up by the tank. Perhaps our bluff has worked! Steady! Here they come!"

The stolen locomotive had come to a stop at the lower end of the station platform, panting as though exhausted by its long run, and a group of Chinese officials were hurrying to meet it.

"Where is his excellency, Yu-Hsien?" asked one of these, peering with an expectant air into the cab.

"He is following on a special train," replied Jo, promptly; "but I am his representative, sent ahead to prepare the way for him. Is the track-repairing car ready, as the governor requested? If not he will cause the officials of Pao-Ting to suffer the same 'bitterness' that has gained him fame among the foreigners of Shan-Si."

"It has been prepared according to the most noble governor's desire," replied the official, hesitatingly, "but – "

"Let us, then, go to it," interrupted Jo, stepping from the locomotive as he spoke and starting up the platform.

Rob followed him closely. As he left the cab he caught a glimpse of a begrimed, dishevelled, and nearly naked man crawling from beneath the tender. In an instant it flashed across him that this was their lost engine-driver. Looking back a moment later he saw the same figure following them.

They in the mean time were being conducted towards the agent's quarters in the station-house, where refreshments had been prepared for Governor Yu-Hsien.

"If he were but here," remarked the official spokesman, deprecatingly, "of course, everything would be at his disposal; but we have been so expressly ordered not to allow the passage north of any save troops or mandarins of the highest rank, that we are at a loss how to act."

"Am I not a representative of one of the greatest mandarins of the empire?" demanded Jo, fiercely, "and am I not come to prepare the way for him? Has it not already been told to your dull ears that upon his reaching the imperial city within two days depends the very life of the Son of Heaven?" At this august name every one present, excepting Rob, and including the speaker himself, made a deep reverence.

"The Emperor is no longer in danger, since the ocean-devil army has been driven back, and now is being cut to pieces by his own invincible troops," boasted the official.

"What do you mean?" asked Jo. "No such news has come to the ears of his excellency the governor."

"It is nevertheless true that from the ships gathered off Taku bar thousands of ocean men were landed to go to Pekin. They travelled by the road of iron-fire, restoring the track, even as you now propose to do. Slower and slower they moved, being beset on all sides by sons of the Great Sword. Beyond An-Ting they could not go, for there they were met by imperial cavalry from the South Hunting Park, and turned back in disorderly flight. Hundreds were killed, and hundreds more are being cut down at this moment. All their guns and banners are captured, and it is certain that not one of them will escape alive. The ocean devils still on their ships have threatened to fire on the Taku forts, but they dare not do it. General Nieh has made answer that, with the firing of the first shot, every foreign devil in Tien-Tsin and Pekin will be put to death; for so commands an edict from the imperial city."

"What has all this to do with us?" inquired Jo, pretending not to be at all affected by this startling news. "The governor of Shan-Si must pass in spite of everything. Let him be delayed by so much as the fraction of an hour, and those whom he will hold responsible may well tremble in their shoes."

"Is not the man with the black face, standing by your side at this moment, a foreign devil?" suddenly demanded the official, ignoring Jo's threat and pointing an accusing, clawlike finger at Rob.

"No," answered Jo, stoutly. "He is a native of the Middle Kingdom; but he comes from the far south, where he was born. Also, he is wise in the science of iron-fire, and has been sent on in advance of the great governor to make safe his way. If you should harm so much as a hair of his head, the vengeance of Yu-Hsien would be swift and terrible as that of Heaven itself."

"He is yang-kwei!" (foreign devil, northern dialect) cried a voice from the back of the room, and Rob, turning quickly, caught a glimpse of the begrimed engine-driver whom he had seen crawl out from under the tender and who afterwards had followed them.

At the same instant he, together with every one in the room, was hurled violently to the floor, the walls of the building were blown in as though they were of card-board, and the city of Pao-Ting-Fu was shaken by an explosion so terrific that its inhabitants ran shrieking from their houses into the streets.

Some of the occupants of the station-agent's room fled from it unharmed, while others, and among them our lads, more or less bruised by falling bricks or tiles, crawled out from the débris and made exit more slowly. Only one remained behind, crushed to death beneath a heavy roof-timber, and he was the engine-driver, killed, in the very act of denouncing Rob, by the blowing up of his own locomotive. It had been left with a roaring fire behind its closed furnace door and very little water in its boiler.

"Are you hurt, Rob?"

"Nothing to speak of. Are you?"

"No."

"Then what do you say? Shall we take advantage of the confusion to light out? Things seemed to be getting pretty hot for us when that blessed old engine interrupted the proceedings."

"What do you mean? Run away? No, indeed!" replied Jo, earnestly. "Things are just as we want them now. Don't you remember that I was telling them what Yu-Hsien would do if they interfered with his plans? He is the head Boxer, you know, and just now the I-Ho-Chuan are credited with being masters of magic. Wait till I speak to these big men."

The official, or, as Jo called him, "the big man," who had been foremost in examining our lads, was excitedly chattering with one of his fellows when Jo and Rob stepped up to him.

"You are alive and not harmed?" he gasped at sight of them.

"Of course we are not harmed," replied Jo. "Did I not tell you that we are the servants of Yu-Hsien? and do you think he would harm his own?"

"Is this terrible thing the work of the great Boxer?"

"Certainly it is. I warned you how it would be. He has killed one who defied him, that you may have evidence of his strength; and if you still go against his wishes your own sons will shortly erect a new ancestral tablet."

"It is true, most honorable one," admitted the frightened official, humbly; "and we are not so dense but that we can learn the lesson thus plainly stated. Tell us, then, how we can serve you, and thus appease the wrath of the mighty Boxer, that he may not visit further destruction upon us."

"Give us the slight thing for which we asked: a few rails, a few track-layers, and a fresh engine, that we may go about our work and prepare the way for our master," replied Jo, boldly, "then shall all go well with you and with this city of Pao-Ting, which otherwise might be bereft of its walls by the next exhibition of Yu-Hsien's wrath."

So superstitious are the Chinese, so dreaded were the mysterious incantations of the I-Ho-Chuan, and so unnerved were the officials of Pao-Ting-Fu by the explosion of a few minutes before, that they yielded to Jo's demands.

A locomotive attached to a car holding rails and a gang of coolies had been made ready in anticipation of Yu-Hsien's coming. This train, standing by the water-tank, at a distance from the scene of explosion, had remained uninjured, and now was placed at the disposal of our lads. They were told that for fifty li the track still was in good condition; after that they could readily repair it with the means at their disposal, until they came to the great bridge at Cho Chou, which had been hopelessly destroyed.

So our young adventurers left the officials of Pao-Ting-Fu, promising them that Yu-Hsien should be informed of their efforts in his behalf, and were thankfully seen to disappear in the gathering twilight.

"Well!" exclaimed Rob, who had not spoken during all these negotiations, heaving a great sigh of relief as they pulled out from the deadly neighborhood. "Our bluff worked, after all. But, take it all around, it was about as close a call as I ever want to experience."

"Yes," replied Jo. "I never expected to be saved from sudden death by the blowing-up of a boiler."

That night they remained on board their new locomotive at the little town of An-Su-Hsien, where Jo procured for each of them the red hats, sashes, and shoes worn by Boxers. At daylight they again were under way, and, though they were obliged to stop a dozen times to replace missing rails, they had reached Cho Chou, only forty miles from Pekin, before dark. Here they were able to hire horses that by late afternoon of the following day had carried them within sight of the far-extended walls of the great Chinese capital. Beyond the wall rolled dense clouds of smoke, as though the whole city were on fire, while distinct above all other sounds rose the sharp rattle of musketry, mingled with the deeper roar of heavier guns.

At these evidences of strife our lads drew rein and looked inquiringly at each other. After all, was the city of Pekin a good place for a young American and a Chinese who had befriended him to enter at that moment?

"Yes," said Rob, at length, "I think we will keep on, only we will give up our horses here. I don't see that we will be any worse off, in any event, inside the city than where we are. There is fighting going on, to be sure, but it must be between our friends and our enemies. If the former are getting the worst of it, then they need our help; while if the fight is going the other way, we have nothing to fear."

"I wonder," remarked Jo, bitterly, as they moved slowly forward on foot, "which side will prove friendly to me, or will all prove enemies of the Chinese who has befriended a foreigner?"