of avoiding a
catastrophe was to put on pace in the hope of arriving at more level
conditions before the impact took place. Yet he must still limit himself
to a speed which enabled the train to keep to the rails on a certain
sharp curve which lay ahead. That was the problem which the
engine-driver set himself to solve: up to a certain point the more pace
he could allow the greater his chance of safety, beyond that point a new
danger arising out of pace lay ahead of him."

The minister paused.

"What happened?" inquired the King.

"He negotiated the curve with success, and had got so far ahead that
when the wagons finally overtook him their impetus had been diminished
by the more level conditions of the road, and the impact was but slight.
Only the guard's van was smashed, and the guard himself rather badly
disabled."

"And what happened afterwards to the guard and the engine-driver?"
inquired his Majesty, much interested.

"The guard was pensioned for life: the engine-driver was promoted."

"And whose fault was it--the guard's?"

"Well, not exactly," replied the Professor; "the careless coupling was
done by others, but the guard had the right, which he had not chosen to
exercise, to refuse to accompany any train in which his van was not put
last--so as to embrace the whole combination. At least, he had the
technical right."

"I suppose he did not wish to give trouble," said the King meditatively.

"Very likely; for, of course, had he exercised his right the whole train
would have been delayed by the extra shunting."

"And he in consequence a less acceptable servant to his employers."

"No one could have blamed him."

"Not for excess of caution?" queried the King. "Did you not yourself
say that on those lines government would become impossible? You have
to run your railway system, it seems, with a certain risk of
accidents--otherwise you would never be up to time."

"That is so," said the Professor. "In every political crisis it is pace
more than principle that I find one has to consider. If it is solved in
such and such a way, our pace will be so and so, and the question--will
it take us safely over the curve? If it is solved in another way so that
the pace slackens, those wagons in the rear may be down upon us."

"And the guard, whose control, while the train makes its running, is but
nominal, is then the first to suffer!" He saw himself in the man's
place. "Poor glow-worm!" he cried, "he may change