"My kitten! Mine!" cried Trouble, always ready to claim any new pet he saw.

"Did you really find it?" asked Tom, as Jan took the kitten into her lap while she and Lola rubbed it, Trouble getting an occasional finger or two on the soft fur.

"Skyrocket found it, and I got it down out of the tree," explained the old sailor, with a laugh. "Now I guess we can move along again. I wish we had some milk for you," he went on, looking at the little cat. "But we'll be home before dark--if we have good luck," he added, as he glanced out into the storm.

Once again the automobile started, with a new pa.s.senger on board.

Skyrocket was used to cats, and after he had taken part in the rescue of the kitten he paid no more attention to it but curled up and went to sleep. As for the kitten, it did not seem to mind the dog in the least.

"I guess it isn't very hungry, Uncle Toby," said Jan in a low voice, after they had ridden several miles. "See, it's going to sleep."

And the little kitten, with eyes closed, was curled contentedly in her lap.

Uncle Toby's main thought now was to drive as fast as he could with safety, so he would get the children to his home in Pocono before the storm grew any worse and before night came.

Once in his house at Pocono they could remain until the weather cleared before going out to the cabin at Crystal Lake to spend the holidays.

They pa.s.sed through a small town, and Jan suggested they might stop and get some milk for the kitten, which had awakened, and was mewing a little.

"I think we'd better not stop now," said Mr. Bardeen. "It is better for the p.u.s.s.y to be a little hungry for a time than for us to get stuck in the snow with night coming on. We'd all be hungry then. We'll soon be home."

They came to a railroad track, almost hidden under the snow, and Uncle Toby stopped the automobile, and, opening the door a little way, seemed to be listening.

"What's the matter?" asked Ted.

"I wanted to hear if the train was coming," was the answer. "One is due here about now, and I didn't want to cross the tracks if it was too near. But I guess it's late on account of the storm. It will be safe to cross."

He drove over the tracks and was just speeding up again when they all heard a distant whistle.

"There's the train!" exclaimed Tom.

Then came several more whistles, long toots and short toots in such a queer combination that they all knew something must be the matter.

"Maybe there's been an accident," said Ted.

"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby. "But I think that the train is stuck in a deep cut not far from here. The cut may be filled with snow so the train can't get through. It's probably stalled there."

"Will anybody be hurt?" asked Janet.

"No, only delayed for a while. Men will come with shovels to dig out the train. We can soon see what has happened, for the auto road pa.s.ses near the railroad cut."

A little later they saw that what Uncle Toby had guessed at had come to pa.s.s. The children saw a pa.s.senger train with the front part of the engine buried deep in a pile of snow that filled a cut between two rocky hills on either side of the track.

As the automobile came in sight of the train the engineer blew several more shrill whistles, waking up Skyrocket, who began to bark loudly.

CHAPTER IX

NEW PLAYMATES

"Just hear him toot!" cried Jan, putting her hands over her ears, for the automobile was now quite close to the train stuck in the big snow drift. The drift was much deeper here than at any other point along the railroad, because the narrow cut between the high rocks held the white flakes tightly packed.

"Sounds as if it was calling us," said Lola.

"I believe it is!" exclaimed Ted, as the toots of the whistle kept up.

"Do you s'pose he could want us to help him, Uncle Toby?"

"How could an auto pull a stalled train out of a snowdrift?" asked Tom.

"Course we couldn't _pull_ the train," admitted Ted. "But we could sort of--now--do _something_, couldn't we, Uncle Toby?" he asked.

"I believe we could, and I think that is what the engineer is trying to signal us for," was the answer. "I know this railroad cut. It is a bad place in a storm. Often trains have been stuck here for days. The engine would ram its pilot, or cowcatcher, into a drift, then snow would pile up behind the last car and the train couldn't go ahead or back up."

"Maybe that's happened now!" exclaimed Lola.

"I shouldn't be a bit surprised," said Uncle Toby.

"But what do the pa.s.sengers do when the train is stuck, like this one is now?" Tom wanted to know.

"Oh, sometimes they get out and walk, as it isn't very far to the station. Or if they have something to eat, and can keep warm in the cars, they stay there until men come with shovels to dig out the train.

I guess that's what this engineer wants me for--to go on to the station and have a gang of men sent to dig out his train. We'll soon find out,"

Uncle Toby remarked.

The automobile road ran close to the tracks and near the deep cut which was filled with snow. The storm was getting worse, but on the level there was not yet enough snow to have stopped a train. It was only in the cut that the drift was deep enough for this.

Uncle Toby stopped the automobile as near the stalled train as he could go, and waited. Soon the engineer and a man with gold braid on his cap came floundering through the deep snow at the side of the train until they were within calling distance of Uncle Toby, who opened the car door to listen.

"Could you oblige us by going to the next station and having the telegraph operator send word to headquarters that we're stalled?" asked the man with the gold braid on his cap. He was the conductor of the train.

"Yes, I'll do that for you," said Uncle Toby. "I thought you were whistling for help," he added to the engineer.

"That's what I was," came the answer. "I saw you just in time. 'Tisn't often that an auto has to come to the help of a steam engine, but it happened this time," he added, with a smile.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" asked Uncle Toby, as he prepared to start off again. The station was a little out of his way, but he didn't mind that.

"Well, I don't know," replied the conductor slowly. "We haven't many pa.s.sengers on board, and all except a little boy and girl who are on their way to Pocono will be all right. The way it is now we'll hardly get there to-night, or anyhow, not until late, and they are traveling alone. They expect to be met at Pocono by--let me see--I have his name here somewhere," and he began searching among the papers in his pocket.

"The children are in my charge," he went on. "Their mother had to go to a hospital and--"

"She did?" cried Uncle Toby so suddenly that the engineer and conductor looked at him in surprise. "Is the name of the man who was to meet these children Mr. Toby Bardeen?" went on the old sailor.

"Why, yes, that's his name. I have it here on a piece of paper," said the conductor. "But how did you--"

"Are those children Harry and Mary Benton?" went on Uncle Toby.

"Those are their names, certainly," the conductor admitted. "But how in the world--"

"I'm Mr. Toby Bardeen," interrupted the old sailor. "Uncle Toby is what the Curlytops call me. I was expecting these children, but I had no idea they'd arrive so soon. It's only by chance that I'm pa.s.sing this way. I didn't expect Mary and Harry for nearly a week."