Pitt pointed at Gunn and then at the engineer. Gunn waved an acknowledgment, grasped the grab irons and leaped up the steps into the cab.
Pitt arrived first. He calmly approached the fireman head-on and said pleasantly, 'Have a nice day.'
Before the confused and astonished fireman could respond, Pitt had swiftly snatched the shovel out of the Arab's hands and beat him over the head with it.
The engineer was in the act of turning around when Gunn whipped him across the jaw with the heavy silencer joined to the Heckler & Koch's stubby muzzle. The Arab dropped like a bag of cement.
While Gunn guarded against intruders, Pitt propped both hijackers so they hung half out of the cab's side windows. Next he thoughtfully studied the maze of pipes, levers and valves.
'You'll never do it,' Gunn said shaking his head.
'I know how to start and drive a Stanley Steamer,' Pitt said indignantly.
'A what?'
'An antique automobile,' Pitt answered. 'Pull open the door to the firebox. I need some light to read the gauges.'
Gunn did as he was asked and held out his hands to warm them from the flames leaping through the opening. 'You better figure it out quick,'
he said impatiently. 'We're lit up like a Las Vegas chorus line.'
Pitt pulled down a long lever and the little engine slipped forward a scant centimeter. 'Okay, that's the brake. I think I've figured what handle does what. Now, when we roll past the crushing mill, jump and hustle inside.'
'What about the train?'
'The Cannonball Express,' Pitt replied with a wide grin, 'does not make stops.'
Pitt released the ratchet on the forward-reverse lever and pushed it away from him. Next he squeezed the ratchet on the throttle bar and eased it open. The locomotive crept slowly ahead, accompanied by the clanging jerk of the coupled ore cars. He shoved the throttle to its stop. The drive wheels whirled full circle several times before they bit the rusty rails. The train lurched forward and got underway.
The labored puffing came in faster spurts as the little engine picked up speed and chugged by the front of the dining hall. The door opened and a hijacker leaned out and raised a hand as if to wave. He snapped it back down when he saw the two bodies leaning from the cab's side windows. He disappeared into the building as if jerked by an immense nibber band, wildly shouting a warning.
Pitt and Gunn both unleashed a blast of gunfire through the windows and door of the building. Then the engine was past and heading toward the crushing mill. Pitt glanced at the ground and judged the speed to be somewhere between fifteen and twenty kilometers.
Pitt pulled the overhead whistle lever and tied it down with a drawstring from inside his ski jacket. The spurt of steam through the brass whistle cut the air like a razor 'Get ready to jump,' he yelled at Gunn above the ear-splitting scream.
Gunn didn't reply. He stared at the rough gravel flashing past as though it were hurtling by at jet speed a thousand meters below.
'Now!' shouted Pitt.
They hit the ground on the run, skidding and sliding but somehow managing to keep their footing, There was no hesitation, no pause to catch their breath. They ran alongside the train and straight up the steps of the crushing- mill's stairs, and didn't stop until they both stumbled, then tripped over the threshold and crashed to the floor inside.
The first thing Pitt saw was Giordino standing above him, unconcernedly holding his machine gun in a muzzle- up position.
'I've seen you kicked out of some pretty raunchy pubs,' Giordino said in a dour voice, 'but this is the first time I've ever seen YOU tossed off a train.'
'No great loss,' said Pitt, coming to his feet. 'It didn't have a club car.'
The gunfire. Yours or theirs?'
'Ours.
'Company on the way?'
'Like mad hornets out of a vandalized nest,' replied pitt. 'We don't have much time to prepare for a siege.'
'They'd better be careful where they aim or their helicopter might get broken.'
'An advantage we'll play to the hilt.'
Findley had finished tying the guard and the two mechanics together in the center of the floor, and he stood up. 'where do you want them?'
'They're as safe as anywhere there on the floor,' answered Pitt. He looked swiftly around at the cavernous interior of the building with the crushing mill squatting in the center. 'Al, you and Findley grab whatever equipment or furniture you can lift and convert the ore crusher into a fort. Rudi and I will delay them as long as we can.'
'A fort within a fort,' said Findley.
'It would take twenty men to defend a building this big,' Pitt explained. 'The hijackers' only hope of capturing their helicopter intact is to blow the main door and rush us en masse. We'll pick off as many as we can from the windows and then retreat to the mill for a last-ditch defense.'
'Now I can sympathize with Davy Crockett at the Alamo,' moaned Giordino.
Findley and GiordinO began fortifying the huge building while Pitt and Gunn set up shop at windows on opposite corners of the building. The sun was beginning to cast its rays over the slopes on the other side of the mountain. Darkness was almost gone.
Pitt could feel the wave of anxiety that washed through his mind. They might prevent the Arabs who were
