Carleton, "what do you make of the running orders,
Tommy?"

"The devil and all his works!"--it came away from Regan now with a rush
from his overburdened soul. "D'ye mean to say that--that"--Regan
choked a little--"that I'm responsible for that brick-topped,
monkey-faced kid?"

"'Until he come of age,'" Carleton amplified pleasantly.

Regan's Celtic temper rose.

"I'll see him hung first!" he roared suddenly. "'Twas no more than to
please Maguire that I stood up with the ugly imp! And mabbe I said
what's here and mabbe I didn't, but in any event 'tis no more than a
matter of form to be repeated parrot-fashion--and it means nothing."

"Oh, well," said the super slyly, "if you feel that way about it, don't
let it bother you."

"It will not bother _me_!" said Regan defiantly, with a scowl.

But it did.

Regan slept that night with an army corps of red-headed, pocked, and
freckled-faced little devils to plague his rest--and their name was
Noodles. His thoughts were unpleasantly more on Noodles than his razor
when he shaved the next morning, and the result was an unsightly gash
across his chin--and when he made his first inspection of the
roundhouse an hour later he was in a temper to be envied by no man.
His irritability was not soothed by the sight of Maguire, who rose
suddenly in front of him from an engine pit as he came in.

"Regan," said the old fellow, "about the bhoy----"

"Maguire," said Regan, in a low, fervent voice, "you bother me about
that again and I'll fire you, too!"

"Wait, Regan." There was a quaver in the little hostler's voice, and
he appeared to stand his ground only by the aid of some previously
arrived at, painful resolution that rose superior to his nervousness.
"Wait, Regan--mabbe yez'll not have to. I talked ut over wid the
missus last night. I've worked well for yez, Regan, all these
years--all these years, Regan, I've worked for yez here in the
roun'house--an' I've worked well, though ut's mesilf that ses ut."

"That's nothing to do with it," snapped the master mechanic.

"Mabbe ut has, an' mabbe ut hasn't." The watery-blue eyes sought the
toes of their owner's grease-smeared, thickly-patched brogans. "I
talked ut over wid the missus. Sure now, Regan, yez weren't thinkin'
fwhat yez said, an' yez didn't mean fwhat yez said yisterday about
raynowncin' the word ye'd passed. Yez'll take ut back, Regan?"

"Take it back? I'll be damned if I do!" said Regan earnestly.

Th