The school is on a small hill and the road near it is quite steep. Trolley cars run up that road and come down with the speed of lightning.
“Whew!” I could not help exclaiming as one car in particular shot past us, “if some day an axle should break, more than one person would get hurt, and badly too.”
“You bet,” replied the janitor. There was a pause, and then he said, “Anyhow, I never ride in them cars unless I can’t help it. I hate anything with wheels.”
I smiled, sympathetically, I thought, but I suppose in his estimation it was a smile of incredulity for he hastened to say, “I used to be a locomotive fireman, but since the day that Jim got killed, I’ve had but little use for anything but my legs.”
Scenting a story, I asked, “How was that?”
He bit off a fresh bite of tobacco and then began:
“As I said before, I used to be a locomotive fireman over on Hawaii. Good job alright, but I couldn’t stand it after Jim died. Jim was my friend, and a right good fellow he was. His job was night watchman on the docks, but his health gave way and the doctor told him the best thing he could do was to go to ’Frisco.
“My run included Kohala—ever been there?”
I shook my head.
“Well, you don’t know what you have missed then. The scenery is magnificent. I had often talked with Jim concerning the place, and he was just crazy to go and see for himself. He never had a chance, though, because he used to sleep all day and work all night. But when the doctor ordered him to throw up his job, he came to me and asked me to try and get him a permit to ride on my train. We were on a freighter, and didn’t carry passengers, so I went up to the manager, and told him the circumstances. But the manager was cross that day and of course he said ‘no’; said he’d quit giving passes to people. I told that to Jim and he was dreadfully disappointed; told me he wanted to see the place before he went back to the States. So I went to my engineer and asked him to take Jim as a brakeman. At first he refused, but I insisted, and while we were talking, a kanaka woman came up and said that her Joe wouldn’t be able to work that trip, as he was sick.