“I’d like to be a fireman on this road when I get older.”
“Not me. I’d rather be the engineer. Why’d you like to be the fireman, Rip?”
“They got better chances of seeing what’s going on while they’re riding and the engineer has to keep his mind and eyes straight ahead.”
“Gee, that’s right.” Westy was beginning to recognize the superior intelligence of his new friend and felt more kindliness toward him.
A few minutes after the porter entered, his arms occupied by various sizes and shapes of various colored shoes. Westy rose and Rip followed suit.
It lacked another minute before midnight would open her portals to welcome the infant day, and still Westy lay wide-eyed in his berth, staring into the darkness. Rip’s heavy breathing above him and the occasional light creak of the springs, betrayed the fact that Rip’s sleep was by no means dreamless.
Wes listened intently as the wheels glided on in flight. Sometimes it gave him the sensation that they weren’t in motion at all, for the roadbed was so smooth that the Limited annihilated the miles like a winged serpent.
They went over a crossing, for he could hear the bell as they passed tinkling its warning of danger to the unwary. Then all lapsed into silence again save the steady drowsy hum of the engine.
Yes, all was silent in the Pullman, too. Silent, except for the loud nasal chorus of those who would proclaim to the whole world their slumbering state. The porter, his cares laid aside for the time, was also contributing his bit in a minor key and at intervals he became very entertaining and shifted down to something that sounded like a bass note, but producing a weird echo like that of a rattlesnake dying. Westy was sure he preferred the minor key; it was much more comforting to hear.
He thought after a while that an hour or more must have passed. His eyes burned for the want of sleep and his throat was awful dry. Poking his head through the curtain he ascertained whether there was any one about. Not a soul anywhere at either end. Good thing they had the end section; he wouldn’t have to slip anything on. Padding out to the water cooler, he quenched his thirst hurriedly and got back in his berth again without encountering any one, and tried his luck at sleeping for the hundredth time.