“Oh, bosh!” he said. “Of course you notified them. Here it is as big as life. Look out for extra west engine 341 leaving Stanley Junction at 1:21 P. M. What do you want to get a case of rattles and scare us all that way for. Say, I’d ought to run down your spinal column with a rake. Don’t you know there are other dispatchers in this office besides yourself--men who know more in a minute about the business than you do in a month? Don’t you suppose that order book would be verified and the train sheet consulted before sending out the extra. Say, don’t you ever show up with such a case of rattles again.”
Bates expressed an enormous sigh of relief. As he came down to the platform, however, Ralph noticed that he was shaking from head to foot.
“Did you ever work up there?” inquired Bates in a solemn tone.
“No,” answered Ralph.
“Then don’t. Just wake up once after you’ve left the key, and get thinking you’ve forgotten something, and--nightmare? Fairbanks, it’s worse than the horrors!”
[CHAPTER XI—MAKING A SCHEDULE]
“You understand me, Fairbanks?”
“Perfectly, Mr. Drake.”
“You have helped us out of trouble before this and I believe you can be of inestimable service in the present instance. We are sorry to lose a first-class engineer, but we need you somewhere else, and need you badly.”
They were seated in the private office of the superintendent of the Great Northern, that august official and the young engineer of the Overland Express, and a long, earnest and serious colloquy had just ended.