“At midnight?” repeated Allan. “Why, yes, of course, if you want me to.”
“Well, y’ll have t’ git up at midnight if y’ want t’ ketch Number Five fer Cincinnati.”
Allan’s face flushed with quick pleasure.
“Am I to go, too?” he asked, eagerly. “Can you take me, too?”
Jack laughed in sympathy with his bright eyes.
“Yes,” he said; “that’s what I kin. I got an extry pass from th’ superintendent. I told him I had a boy who wanted t’ see th’ road because he was goin’ t’ be superintendent hisself, some day. He said he guessed he knew th’ boy’s name without bein’ told, an’ wrote out th’ pass.”
Allan flushed high with pleasure.
“That was nice of him,” he said.
“Yes,” said Jack; “an’ yet I think he was figgerin’ on helpin’ th’ road, too. Y’ see, whenever a bright feller like you comes along an’ shows that he’s steady an’ can be depended on, he never gits t’ work on section very long. They need boys like that up in th’ offices. That’s where th’ brains o’ th’ road are. In fact, th’ office itself is th’ brain o’ th’ whole system, with wires runnin’ out to every part of it an’ bringin’ back word what’s goin’ on, jest like a doctor told me once th’ nerves do in our bodies.”
“Yes,” nodded Allan; “but what has that got to do with my going over the road to-morrow?”