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There were but two miscalculations in the whole programme; they did not expect men to start out afoot to pursue them, and they did not expect these pursuers on foot to find Major Cooper's old "Yonah" standing there all ready fired up. Their calculations on every other point were dead certainties, and would have succeeded perfectly. This would have eclipsed anything Captain Morgan ever attempted.
As they passed the locomotive, Tom read its name, Yonah, painted upon the side of the cab. "Hadn't we better destroy the track?" asked Tom. "No," Andrews replied, "we're only thirteen miles to Kingston. We better get there and past the freight without losing any time." "More wood!" yelled Brown. Knight was at the throttle again. The supply of wood was running low.
The rickety old "Yonah" seemed to enter into the spirit of the pursuit, for the distance to Kingston thirteen miles was made in twelve minutes. As Andrews and his men had been delayed at Kingston for more than an hour waiting for the freight trains to allow him to pass, the pursuers, led by Captain Fuller, arrived at Kingston only ten minutes after the raiders left.
At that moment a combined passenger and freight train from the branch line to Rome swung around the bend and pulled into the station. The congestion was complete. With the fuel-less Yonah at one end, and the Rome train at the other, the three freights were hopelessly locked and tangled. Fuller ran back to the engine. "Come on," he said. "We'll take the Rome engine."
The tracks were crowded with these freight trains when the "Yonah" arrived, and Captain Fuller saw at a glance that the locomotive would be of no further service in the chase. He leaped from the engine, and ran about two miles to the north angle of the Rome railway, where he knew he would find the locomotive of the Rome road standing at this hour.
The idea of running after a locomotive would have seemed too ridiculous. But, expecting to find it abandoned around each curve, he raced on and on until they came to the hand car; then the Yonah. When the Yonah had run out of fuel, the New York was there to carry him to the Rome engine. When the Rome engine had been stopped by the break in the track, they had come to the Texas.
Finding a hand-car they mounted it and pushed forward till they neared Etowah, where they ran on the break we had made in the road, and were precipitated down the embankment into the ditch. Continuing with more caution, they reached Etowah and found the "Yonah," which was at once pressed into service, loaded with soldiers who were at hand, and hurried with flying wheels toward Kingston.
"'The Yonah' was a better engine than this one," said Murphy, regretfully, before they had run more than two or three miles. He spoke the truth; the new engine had not the speed of "The Yonah." The difference was quite apparent. "We must do the best we can with her," said Fuller. "Put a little engine oil into the furnace. We'll give her a gentle stimulant."
The hand-car was lifted to the track, beyond the telegraph pole, and the journey was resumed. "Shall we find an engine here?" thought Fuller, as the car approached Etowah station. "There are iron furnaces near here," said Murphy, "and I know that an engine named 'The Yonah' has been built to drag material from the station to the furnaces. It's one of the finest locomotives in the South."
They ran for the train. The screeching whistle of the Yonah, which had sent the General speeding away from Kingston, was a warning to the engineer of the freight train blocking the way of the pursuers. It had pulled out of the station and was lumbering southward, intending to make the side-track at Cass Station and wait for Fuller's passenger train.
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