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She no longer declared that she would be engine-driver or a blacksmith, but turned her mind to farming, and found in it a vent for the energy bottled up in her active little body. It did not quite satisfy her, however; for her sage and sweet marjoram were dumb things, and could not thank her for her care.
The stoker had said that the engine-driver had been dazed like the steersman. But no. There are avenues of conjecture from which the mind shrinks. I could not follow up that train of thought. Happily, I did not see my enemy again at least, during that journey. And my mind was diverted, for the dawn came the beautiful September dawn.
The great parabolic head-light illuminated the track a long way in advance, all behind it being of course in darkness. Suddenly Sinclair cried out: "The fools have a light there, as I am a living man; and there is a little red one near us. What can that be? All ready. Jack! By heavens! they have taken up two rails. Now, hold on, all! The engine-driver shut his throttle-valve with a jerk.
At intervals of half a minute the fireman opened the furnace door; and by the flare of light from the white-hot fire-box the engine-driver could see the men on the teetering trolley, the motor-man, the conductor, the sheriff, and his deputy. Slowly now the black flier began to slip away from the electric machine.
The Arab engine-driver, piloting his charge through no-man's land, where the bones of former train crews lay bleaching, simply because he was an engine-driver and that was his job; the freight in locked steel cars consigned by optimists who hoped it might reach its destination; the four guards armed with worn-out rifles that they did not dare use; the four passenger-cars with their window-glass all shot away; the half-dozen Arab artisans carried along for makeshift repairs en route; and the more than brave the too-fatalist-to-care-much passengers wondering which of their number had an enemy at every halting-place; and along with that the formalism the observance of conventions such as blowing the whistle and pulling down the signal, on a track that carried one train one way once a week; it made you feel like taking off your hat to it all, reminding me in a vague way of those Roman legionaries who kept up the semblance of their civilization after the power of Rome had waned.
When he heard of the death of the Gallands' gardener he recollected that before the passion for gambling overtook Feller he had still another passion besides his guns. The garden of the Feller estate had been famous in its neighborhood. Young Lanstron had not been more fond of the society of an engine-driver than young Feller of a gardener's.
Of course, he remembered now both guard and engine-driver were obliged to have blue eyes. Blue eyes furnished the motor-power and scenery and everything. It was the spell that managed the whole business the Spell of the Big Blue eyes blue, the colour of youth and distance, of sky and summer flowers, of childhood.
Simmons, "if the child is very young, she may be afraid to move, or p'raps she doesn't know that this is where she ought to get out." Fresh hope rose in Thomas's heart as they made their way along the whole length of the train. The guard and the porter paused in their gossip to turn and look at them, the engine-driver hanging lazily over the side of his box watched them idly.
Soldiering was never so healthy an occupation as to-day; one fights only a few days a year at the utmost, and if the pay is poor, so is that of the scavenger and the engine-driver and the miner, and everybody else who does the dirty work of civilisation, and does it, too, without pomp and circumstance and brass bands and laureates.
"I never thought you could get through but would give in and stay there all night. The engine-driver was getting impatient to be off, so I came to find out."
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