“No! I shall look at your engine.”
“All right. But, if it ain’t so, I want you to take this boy off my engine and give me a man that knows something. I’ve stood it just as long as I can!”
Down to the engine they went, and the foreman soon satisfied himself that Frank had told the truth. Then he was angry.
“What do you mean, Hicks,” he demanded, “by reporting O. K. when your engine is in such condition?”
Old Joe tried to answer, but he could not do much of anything but swear.
“Such carelessness is astonishing!” exclaimed Ganzell. “You do not deserve an engine. You are incompetent!”
That made the old man furious, and the look he gave Merriwell was evidence of the deadly hatred seething in his heart.
“You shall pay for this!” he muttered, in a deadly way.
“No threats, sir!” exclaimed Ganzell. “Merriwell simply did his duty. We shall not need you for the next week. You may go home!”
So the engineer was laid off because of Frank’s discovery, and it made him hate Merry more than ever.