The engine crew and head brakie of 29 had been shoveling snow from a large drift alongside the track into their engine's tender to keep them from running out of water.
Billy and Lake waded back to their Hog and Billy told Jojo to get a fire in her...They coupled into 29's caboose and whistled the backup signal...29's engine crew responded with a like three short hoots, and Billy hauled her over into back motion and gave her steam and sand to see if they could get 29 free of the drift she was stuck in.
Billy's little Hog slipped and the exhaust roared, and 29's engine chuffed and slipped as well a time or two. After a couple attempts bunching and stretching the slack to get the momemtum and tonnage of 29's train to help, and with black smoke billowing from both stacks against the cloudy sky, together the two engines finally moved 29 and her train back out of the drift a half dozen carlengths. They backed down a little farther and stopped in a fairly clear spot where the show wasn't too deeep so 29's engine crew could get out the steam hose and clean up their engine's front end, pony truck and valve gear. 29's rear end crew had the coffee pot going, so they all took a break for some hot coffee, "Caboose Stew" and a little rest before taking to the shovels to clear a partial path in the large drift across the tracks that they could buck their way through. Billy and 29's hoghead figured with both engines working at it, they could punch through. The plan was for Billy to stay coupled and help them to the top of the pass. There at Summit's telegraph office they could get the operator to report their arrival to the Dispatcher, and Billy and his crew could get turned on the wye in the snowshed and get started back down the hill to where they left their train.
That was the plan anyway......
During their break, the discussion turned to the strange "other" train Billy and his crew saw following 29 before daylight ...had it been some kind of a "mass hallucination" and not been real???? There certainly was no other train on the road between Billy's hog and 29, so what was it they saw?
The rear brakie on 29 got pale and quiet again and didn't participate in the conversation...what was it he knew that the others didn't???......
