He was aroused from his reverie by a touch on the shoulder, and a curt request, “Tickets, please.”
He pulled out of his pocket a pass, and turned to hand it to the conductor who stood there with a glittering, plated, and crystal lantern on his arm.
“Hello, John, is this you?” cried the conductor, as soon as he saw the face. “Hang it, man, you didn’t need a pass in travelling with me.”
“They gave it to me to take me home,” said Saggart, a touch of sadness in his voice, “and I may as well use it as not. I don’t want to get you into trouble.”
“Oh, I’d risk the trouble,” said the conductor, placing the lantern on the floor and taking his seat beside the engineer. “I heard about your worry to-day. It’s too bad. If a man had got drunk at his post, as you and I have known ‘em to do, it wouldn’t have seemed so hard; but at its worst your case was only an error of judgment, and then nothing really happened. Old Eighty-six seems to have the habit of pulling herself through. I suppose you and she have been in worse fixes than that, with not a word said about it.”
“Oh, yes,” said John, “we’ve been in many a tight place together, but we won’t be any more. It’s rough, as you say. I’ve been fifteen years with the company, and seven on old Eighty-six, and at first it comes mighty hard. But I suppose I’ll get used to it.”
“Look here, John,” said the conductor, lowering his voice to a confidential tone, “the president of the road is with us to-night; his private car is the last but one on the train. How would it do to speak to him? If you are afraid to tackle him, I’ll put in a word for you in a minute, and tell him your side of the story.”
John Saggart shook his head.
“It wouldn’t do,” he said; “he wouldn’t overrule what one of his subordinates had done, unless there was serious injustice in the case. It’s the new manager, you know. There’s always trouble with a new manager. He sweeps clean. And I suppose that he thinks by ‘bouncing’ one of the oldest engineers on the road, he will scare the rest.”
“Well, I don’t think much of him between ourselves,” said the conductor. “What do you think he has done to-night? He’s put a new man on Eighty-six. A man from one of the branch lines who doesn’t know the road. I doubt if he’s ever been over the main line before. Now, it’s an anxious enough time for me anyhow with a heavy train to take through, with the thermometer at zero, and the rails like glass, and I like to have a man in front that I can depend on.”