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Back The Silver Arrow Save as PDF
Chapters (28)
  1. Dedication
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. About the Author

It was too late anyway. The Silver Arrow hit the curve and Kate felt the whole train lean out to one side over thin air. Everybody screamed. Kate clung to the cab’s left side, which was on the inside of the curve. Maybe her weight would make a tiny bit of difference?! She could actually feel the train’s left-hand wheels leave the track, and for a horrible instant they were riding the curve on one single rail. There was the toe-curling shriek of steel on steel, and for an unbearably long second they balanced there and time seemed to stop—

—and then the train crashed back down onto the rails and they kept going.

The track was straight from there. They rattled down the lower slopes of the mountain and on into the foothills. Kate looked around the cab.

“Let’s never do that again,” she said.

“Agreed,” the heron said.

AGREED

As soon as she dared, Kate stuck her head back out the window to see what was coming next. She regretted it immediately.

“I don’t believe it,” she said.

They’d reached the coast, and up ahead were bright white sand and the wide blue ocean. The tracks led straight down into it.

18

The Wise Island

THIS TIME KATE DIDN’T BOTHER YELLING ANYTHING like “Look out!” or “Oh no!” or even just “Help!” It was already too late. All she could do was watch the wild blue surf come thundering up at them.

She closed her eyes. If she had to die at the age of eleven, she supposed that crashing into a nameless ocean in a speeding steam train with her brother and a bunch of talking animals at least had some flair to it. She would have an outstandingly compelling obituary.

But she didn’t die. Instead the Silver Arrow swooshed right down into the water.

Kate wished she could’ve watched it from a distance because it would’ve looked so cool: The massive black steam engine charged right into the rolling surf, butting and smashing through the waves, throwing spray everywhere, seawater hissing off its hot boiler—and then the water parted and formed a luminous emerald tunnel down into the ocean, and the Silver Arrow shot right down into it.

Gradually, foot by foot, the tracks descended under the water, following the slope of the ocean floor. Shifting green sunlight filtered down through the ocean overhead, quickly cooling into a deep blue dusk as the tunnel took them farther below the surface. Sound became muffled. Rocks and seaweed and schools of silvery fish rolled past, eyeing them curiously and flashing their bright sides.

“Wow,” Kate said. “Oh wow. What is even happening?”

DON’T ASK ME

BUT IT’S BEAUTIFUL