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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

I’M STUCK!!!

“Come on!” Tom yelled. “Come on!”

“You have to try!” Kate said.

“You can do it!” said the porcupine. “Probably!”

There was a snap and a crash behind them, and with a grinding, groaning effort, the Silver Arrow surged forward again. Kate looked back: Maybe it was the snow and the darkness but all she could see behind them was the tender and the passenger cars.

Were all the rest gone? The library? Her beloved sleeper car? The candy car? There were so many candies she hadn’t tried yet! There was a whole jar of something called Ultimate Malted Milk Balls, which were like regular malted milk balls but coated in all three kinds of chocolate—milk, dark, and white. Now she’d never get to try them!

They’d been in some close scrapes before, but it suddenly occurred to her—as it had that very first night, when they’d plunged down the hill behind the house—that maybe this wasn’t going to turn out all right in the end. They’d come so far, but maybe they weren’t going to make it all the way. Maybe that was how this story ended.

Then there was a crack like almighty thunder, and the ice gave way right under them. The Silver Arrow crashed down through it into the freezing black water. A massive geyser of steam exploded up all around the boiler.

“No!” Kate shouted.

“No!” shouted Tom.

“No!” shouted the porcupine.

Click-bing.

BLAZE!

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25

The Roundhouse

THE SILVER ARROW WEIGHED 102.36 TONS. IT DID NOT float. It sank—fast. Lake water boiled all around it from the heat of the engine.

As panicked as they were, Kate and Tom had the presence of mind to slam the windows shut as fast as they could and close the door at the back of the cab. That should delay our deaths by both freezing and drowning for a good two minutes, Kate thought.

“Can you swim?” she said.

“Yes,” said Tom.

“I know you can, I meant the porcupine!”

“I certainly can,” the porcupine said proudly. “My quills are hollow, so they double as natural flotation devices!”

“Okay. Good to know.”

I CAN’T SWIM

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING

“No, I figured.”

Kate stared at the dark water climbing up over the windows. There was a sickening sinking sensation as the snowy evening disappeared overhead and the train slid down into the black lake. How deep was it? There was some length of time people could survive in freezing cold water, and Kate couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but she knew it wasn’t very long. Even if they did get out, they’d be soaking wet in the middle of a frozen lake, probably miles from anywhere. They would freeze to death for sure.

Maybe better to drown and get it over with. Thin jets of water sprayed in around the doors—the Silver Arrow wasn’t made to be watertight.