An hour or so later they came to a fork in the tracks and stopped. Kate and Tom climbed down from the engine and walked a few yards ahead to where a branch line peeled off to the right. There was a big iron lever by the side of the tracks that shunted trains from one line to another. They pulled it and ran back to the warm cab, and the big train rumbled on down the new track.

PROMISE ME SOMETHING

“Sure,” Kate said. “Anything.”

DON’T LET MY FIRE GO OUT

IT’S THE ONE THING I’M SCARED OF. I DON’T WANT TO GO TO THE ROUNDHOUSE!

Kate and Tom looked at each other.

“Sure. Of course.”

“We promise,” Tom said. “What’s the Roundhouse?”

I CAN’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT

After a few hours they entered a silent, misty forest. The tops of the trees disappeared overhead into thick fog. Kate knew it was still daytime, but the sun was hidden by the mist. It looked miles deep.

Still: so far so good. She found Tom in the dining car eating a muffin and looking out the window at the giant trees in the gloom.

“This is weird,” he said.

“Eerie.”

They didn’t speak for a while. It was kind of hypnotic, staring into the misty depths.

“What kind of muffin is that?” she said.

“Banana chocolate.”

“Are there any more?”

“There were two, but I ate them both.”

She sighed. It was hard being philosophical about things all the time, but somehow she managed it.

Kate felt the train slow down and stop. Once again they weren’t at a station—that was never a good sign. She went forward to talk to the Silver Arrow.

“Where are we?” Kate said.

I DON’T KNOW

“Oh.” Kate considered that. “How about we keep going till we get to somewhere where we do know where we are?”

I DON’T THINK I CAN

I’M OUT OF COAL

Wait—really? Kate checked the tender again, and her insides went cold. Nothing but coal dust. A load was still burning in the firebox, but that would only last another few hours. Somehow she’d just assumed that they’d have enough to make it to the next station or fuel depot or whatever. These things always worked themselves out, right? Some part of her must still have thought, deep down, that somebody else would solve the problem.

But there was no one else, just her and Tom, and now they were stuck here alone in a strange forest who-knows-where, way off the main line, with no way to get home, and soon the Silver Arrow’s fire would go out. And that was its greatest fear.