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In a commanding voice Stephenson ordered the engineman to lower him down the shaft in the corve. There was peril, it might be death, before him, but he must go. He was soon at the bottom, and in the midst of the men, who were paralysed by the danger which threatened the lives of all in the pit.
Much good will your trumpery message do then! If, however, you have the wit to sound your long and short on an engine-whistle, thus: Scre scre, scre; screeee; scre scre; scre scre scre scre; scre scre scre, scre scre, screeeee scrceeee; scre; screeeee; why, then the whole neighborhood, for five miles round, will know that Comet must stop, if only they understand spoken language, and, among others, the engineman of Comet will understand it; and Comet will not run into that wreck of worlds which gives the order, with his nucleus of hot iron and his tail of five hundred tons of coal.
Apprehensive, he crawled back on the coal to watch the caboose himself, and stayed long enough to see that the rapidly drifting snow threatened to derail the outfit any minute. He got back to the cab and ordered a stop. "This won't do!" said he to Stevens and the engineman. "We can't back that caboose loaded with men through this storm. We shall be off the track in five minutes."
"Then I shall consider it my duty to report both you and the engineman, for a violation of rule 116, which provides that no person, except those employed upon it, shall be permitted to ride on a locomotive without a written order from the proper authority," said Snyder, as he turned away.
They saw the white hulk of the steam-boat looming upon the water to the north. Her side paddle-wheels churned the flood. A strong purpose took possession of Susannah; she knew what she was going to do. She said to the boy, "No one could stop a steamer when she once starts until she gets to her next port." "I bet the engineman could stop her just as easy as that."
He did not wish to remain a brakeman very long, nor even to become a conductor; but he did want to learn how to run a locomotive, and looked forward with longing anticipation to the day when he might fill the proud position of engineman.
He went up on deck again, for he could not rest in one place long. There was a breeze now, and he filled his lungs and blew and blew. The island was dying down over the sea in a pale light of silver grey. An engineman and a stoker were leaning over the bulwark to cool themselves. "Happy enough now, sir, eh?" "Happy as a sand-boy, mate, only mortal hungry. Tiffin you say?
John Ratcliffe, the engineman, is going to write a letter for me to some mates of his there. The last two years, when I've been on the night-shift, I have gone in and helped him a bit pretty often in the day, so as to get to know something about an engine, and to be able to do a job of smith's work; anyhow, he thinks I can get a berth as a striker or something of that sort.
On another occasion, while the same engineer was ascending in a tub, it was upset in consequence of the engineman raising the rope too suddenly. The engineer hanging on by one leg, with his head downwards was hoisted a height of forty yards, before the alarm was given and he was lowered to the bottom.
Since he had modelled his clay engines in the bog, his young ambition was to be an engineman; and to be an assistant fireman was the first step towards this position. Great therefore was his joy when, at about fourteen years of age, he was appointed assistant-fireman, at the wage of a shilling a day.
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