“Wid this.” The engineer tugged gently at the lever. “Try it again if you like.”
So Lanny stepped back on the platform and rolled the machine a few yards up the road and back again and seemed quite pleased and proud. Nevertheless he still denied that he would have the courage to try to do it alone. “I guess I’d better start in and work up,” he said smilingly. “Maybe I could get the job of night watchman for a beginning. I suppose there is a watchman, isn’t there?”
“There’s two or three of thim.”
Lanny tried not to let his disappointment show. “That’s what I’ll do then,” he laughed. “And if I get cold I’ll sit here by your boiler.”
“Oh, there’s no watchman on this job,” said the other carelessly. “We just put the lanterns up. That’s enough. It’s only where there’s a good dale of travelin’ that they do be havin’ the watchman on the job. Well, here’s where we get busy. Come along, you ould teakettle. The boss wants you. So long, lad.”
The little roller rumbled off up the road and Lanny, whistling softly, wandered back the way he had come, stopping here and there to watch operations. But once around the corner he no longer dawdled. He set out at his best pace instead, went a block westward and one northward and presently reached his destination, a house at the corner of Troutman and B Streets. Dick Lovering’s blue runabout was in front of the gate and Dick himself was sitting on the porch with Gordon Merrick. Gordon was a clean-cut, live-looking boy of sixteen, a clever first-baseman and an equally clever left end. He and Dick were close friends. They had evidently been awaiting Lanny’s appearance, for they spied him the moment he came into sight and before he had reached the gate Gordon called eagerly: “All right, Lanny?”
“Fine! I’m the best little chauffeur in the Street Department!”
“Better not talk so loudly,” cautioned Dick. “Do you have to have a license to run it?”
Lanny chuckled. “I guess so, but I’ve lost mine. Say, fellows, it’s dead easy!” He seated himself on the top step and fanned himself with his cap. April was surprising Clearfield with a week of abnormally warm weather and this Saturday morning was the warmest of all. “The chap was awfully decent to me. It seems rather a shame to take him in the way I did. He let me get on it and run it and showed me all about it. Why, all you have to do——” And thereupon Lanny went into technical details with enthusiasm and explained until Gordon shut him off.