"McGrath, run your train back to Wind River behind us. We'll scare up a conductor here somewhere; if we can't, I'll be your conductor. Make your report to Medicine Bend," Bucks added, speaking to the operator; and without further words walked back to his car.
As he turned away, the engineer of Number Sixteen slapped Aloysius on the back:
"Kid, why the blazes didn't you thank him?"
"Who?"
"Bucks."
"What for?"
"What for? Jiminey Christmas! What for? Didn't he just make you an engineer? Didn't he just say, 'Run your train back behind us to Wind River'?"
"My train?"
"Sure, your train. Do you think Bucks ever says a thing like that without meaning it? You bet not."
Bucks's clerk, too, was a little uncertain about the promotion. "I suppose he's competent to run the train back, isn't he?" he asked of Bucks, suggestively.