FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  
hat he dropped, quivering and clucking, on a hay-bale. "Eleven, seven, ninety-seven, L. Y. S.; fourteen ought ought three; nineteen thirteen; one one four; seventeen ought twenty-one M. B.; and the ten westbound. All straight except the two last. Cut 'em off at the junction. An' that's all right. Pull that string." The yard-master, with mild blue eyes, looked out over the howling truckmen at the waters in the moonlight beyond, and hummed: "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lawd Gawd He made all!" .007 moved out the cars and delivered them to the regular road-engine. He had never felt quite so limp in his life before. "Curious, ain't it?" said Poney, puffing, on the next track. "You an' me, if we got that man under our bumpers, we'd work him into red waste an' not know what we'd done; but-up there--with the steam hummin' in his boiler that awful quiet way..." "I know," said.007. "Makes me feel as if I'd dropped my Fire an' was getting cold. He is the greatest man on earth." They were at the far north end of the yard now, under a switchtower, looking down on the four-track way of the main traffic. The Boston Compound was to haul .007's string to some far-away northern junction over an indifferent road-bed, and she mourned aloud for the ninety-six pound rails of the B. & A. "You're young; you're young," she coughed. "You don't realise your responsibilities." "Yes, he does," said Poney, sharply; "but he don't lie down under 'em." Then, with aside-spurt of steam, exactly like a tough spitting: "There ain't more than fifteen thousand dollars' worth o' freight behind her anyway, and she goes on as if 't were a hundred thousand--same as the Mogul's. Excuse me, madam, but you've the track.... She's stuck on a dead-centre again--bein' specially designed not to." The Compound crawled across the tracks on a long slant, groaning horribly at each switch, and moving like a cow in a snow-drift. There was a little pause along the yard after her tail-lights had disappeared; switches locked crisply, and every one seemed to be waiting. "Now I'll show you something worth," said Poney. "When the Purple Emperor ain't on time, it's about time to amend the Constitution. The first stroke of twelve is--" "Boom!" went the clock in the big yard-tower, and far away.007 heard a full, vibrati
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
things
 

thousand

 

dropped

 

Compound

 

ninety

 
junction
 
string
 

hundred

 
dollars
 

Excuse


freight

 

coughed

 
realise
 

responsibilities

 
spitting
 

sharply

 
fifteen
 
specially
 

Emperor

 

Purple


waiting

 

crisply

 

locked

 

vibrati

 

Constitution

 

stroke

 

twelve

 

switches

 

disappeared

 

crawled


tracks

 
designed
 

mourned

 

centre

 

groaning

 
horribly
 

lights

 
switch
 

moving

 
twenty

delivered
 

wonderful

 
seventeen
 
Curious
 

thirteen

 

regular

 
engine
 

creatures

 
straight
 

westbound