“It’s hardly worth while taking a sleeper,” said Mr. Newton. “We’ll get there about midnight, and I’ve wired for rooms at the only hotel in the village. Can’t tell whether we’ll get ’em, or not, the way things are.”
It was a good deal like being a soldier, Larry thought, to be a reporter on a big paper. You never knew where you were going, nor when. At one minute you might be engaged in writing up a peaceful bit of news, and the next be sent far away to report raging floods or big fires. But Larry liked the excitement, and he felt that there was no finer or more responsible calling.
To be a reporter on a big paper meant to be able to command much power, which, if rightly used, proved of great value. A reporter is, in a way, his own master, serving only his paper.
Through the storm splashed the train. The wind howled around it and the rain beat upon it, but those inside were comfortable and warm.
Larry and Mr. Newton found seats together and they settled down into them, to listen to the roar of the storm, and the puffing of the engine until they came to their destination. Progress was slow, because the railroad line was not as safe as usual. Once they were delayed an hour by a lot of sand washing down on the track. The train crew had to get out and shovel it off.
Again they came to so sudden a stop that several of the passengers were thrown from their seats.
“We hit something that time,” exclaimed Mr. Newton.
“Felt so,” replied Larry.
Nearly everyone in the cars piled out in spite of the rain. Larry and Mr. Newton followed their example. They found that the locomotive had struck a big rock that had been loosened from a bluff by the rain, and had fallen down on the track. But for the fact that the engineer saw it in time, and put on brakes, there might have been a serious accident. As it was, the pilot of the locomotive was smashed.
There was a delay of two hours this time before the rock could be removed, and when the train at last got under way, and pulled into Stoneville, they were more than three hours behind time.