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It would have been strange indeed if John Marrot could have been much put about by a small matrimonial breeze, seeing that his life was spent in riding on an iron monster with white-hot lungs and boiling bowels which carried him through space day and night at the rate of fifty miles an hour! This, by the way, brings us back to our text earthquakes.
John Marrot was remarkably fond of his iron horse. No dragoon or hussar that we ever read of paid half so much attention to his charger.
Being, however, consigned to the care of Gertie he again let on the steam and kept it up during the whole time the family were at tea which meal they enjoyed thoroughly, quite regardless of the storm. He was asleep when his father rose at last and buttoned his heavy coat up to the chin, while Mrs Marrot stood on tiptoe to arrange more carefully the woollen shawl round his neck.
Close beside them was discovered the headless trunk of a young man, and the dead body of a girl who had been his companion that day. Gertie was the first taken out. Her tender little frame seemed to have yielded to the pressure and thus escaped, for, excepting a scratch or two, she was uninjured. John Marrot did not pause to indulge in any expression of feeling.
It was at reduced speed certainly, but not sufficiently reduced to avoid a collision with the trucks on a part of the line where no trucks should be. Our friend John Marrot was on the look-out of course, and so was his mate. They saw the trucks at once.
Sorry I 'aven't got a card with me, but if you'll just say that it's John Marrot, the engine-driver, I dessay that'll do for a free pass." The elderly woman went off with a smile, but returned quickly with an anxious look, and bade the man follow her.
A small boy turned on the steam, the machine moved, and Will Garvie pointed out to Mrs Marrot the fact that two sharp edges of steel in a certain part of it crossed each other exactly in the manner of a pair of scissors. "Well," remarked Mrs M, after contemplating it for some time, "it don't look very like scissors, but I'm free to confess that them two bits of iron do act much in the same way."
"Why," continued the enthusiastic gentleman, "I shall in that case be allowed from the company 6 pounds a week, until recovered, or, in the event of my sinking under my injuries within three months after the accident, the whole sum of 1000 pounds will be paid to my family." Mrs Tipps smiled and nodded her head approvingly, but Mrs Marrot still looked dubious.
Having finished his journey, John Marrot took his iron steed to the stable. Usually his day's work terminated at Clatterby; but, owing to the horse being in need of extra rest he had to stop in London that night.
In fact much more of one's comfort than is generally known depends upon one's driver being a good one. John Marrot was known to the regular travellers on the line as a first-rate driver, and some of them even took an interest in ascertaining that he was on the engine when they were about to go on a journey. It may be truly said of John that he never "started" his engine at all.
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