Synopsis
"Train!" Billy yelled again. But Finn and Dannie didn't seem to hear him. They were still racing toward him on the tracks. The train was coming up fast behind them. "Get off...NOW!" Billy tried to push his friends off the tracks, but they were going too fast. They smashed into him. The three of them fell to the tracks in a heap. Only then did Finn and Dannie hear the chugging engine. Its powerful beam cut through the fog behind them. We'll never make it! Billy thought.
Anita Barnes Lowen - Children's Literature
It is summer and time for best friends, Billy, Dannie and Finn, to hang out at the swimming hole, to steer clear of anything to do with the town's 4th of July pageant and, of course, to win the "war" they are waging against three older boys. Then Billy discovers a hidden pistol and a mysterious note which threatens to "make the goat pay." The three are pretty sure "the goat" refers to the Great Northern Railway. But who is behind this plot and when and how are the wrongdoers going to make the railway pay? This 3rd title in the "Cascade Mountain Railroad Mysteries" series is a high interest, easy-to-read chapter book. Do not overlook the author's notes at the end. They give readers an inside look at the real village of Scenic, Washington, where the author's grandfather lived while the Cascade train tunnel was under construction and provide lots of additional information about silk trains, the telegraph and everyday life in 1926. 2004, Peachtree Publishers, Ages 8 to 11.