“I was on my way to a horse trade,” explained the deacon.
“And I,” said the burglar, “was just looking about for a nice easy house to rob. They don’t have any houses at the Equator, so I would have absolutely nothing to do.”
“Tut! tut!” said the conductor peevishly. “Keep your seats, gents. There ain’t no such a place as the Equator on this line. You’re on the wrong car, young chaps,” he added, turning to Billy and Nimbus.
Billy was troubled at this. Could it be that Nimbus really couldn’t enchant the trolley car after all?
But the Fairy only smiled as the car, which had started away suddenly, came to a stop, as if it had run into something.
“I thought we wouldn’t get past it,” he said.
“Get past what?” inquired Billy and the plumber’s apprentices in a breath.
“That imaginary line,” said Nimbus. “I drew it across the track.”
“But,” said Billy, “no imaginary line really goes anywhere except the Equator.”
“Neither will the trolley car until I let it,” replied Nimbus. “So they are in the same fix.”