“It’s cruel hard, sir,” he said. “But my orders——”
“I’m not asking you to disobey orders,” said Tom, “but in a case like this, for the sake of that poor young girl and the gallant soldier who wants to marry her—a comrade of your own, sergeant. You may have known him out in France—I think you ought to stretch a point. Listen to me now!”
He drew the sergeant away from the door of the carriage and whispered to him.
“I’ll do it, sir,” said the sergeant. “My orders say nothing about that point.”
“You do what I suggest,” said Tom, “and I’ll fix things up with the guard.”
He found the guard and the engine driver awaiting events in the station-master’s office. They were quite willing to follow him to the carriage in which Susie sat. They listened with deep emotion to the story which Tom told them. It was exactly the same story which he told the sergeant, except this time the bridegroom was a battalion commander of the Irish Volunteers whose life was threatened by a malignant Black-and-Tan. Susie sobbed as bitterly as before.
“It’s a hard case, so it is,” said the guard, “and if there was any way of getting the young lady to Dublin——”
“There’s only one way,” said Tom, “and that’s to take on this train.”
“It’s what we can’t do,” said the engine driver, “not if all the girls in Ireland was wanting to get married. So long as the armed forces of England——”
“But they’re not armed,” said Tom.