The Iron Horse (Annotated) - Robert Michael Ballantyne - E-Book

The Iron Horse (Annotated) E-Book

Robert Michael Ballantyne

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Beschreibung

  • This edition includes the following editor's introduction: Robert Michael Ballantyne, the Scottish master of the adventure genre for young people

Originally published in 1871, "The Iron Horse” (also known as The Iron Horse: or, Life on the Line. A Tale of the Grand National Trunk Railway) is a historical novel by Scottish author Robert Michael Ballantyne.

"The Iron Horse" is an exceptional and highly recommended immersion into the history of the railway and other aspects of railway history in England presented through the adventurous lives of the characters.

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Table of contents

Robert Michael Ballantyne, the Scottish master of the adventure genre for young people

THE IRON HORSE

Chapter One - Treats of the Engine-driver's House and Household

Chapter Two - The Driver Visits a Little Elderly Gentlewoman and Prepares the Iron Horse for Action

Chapter Three - In Which the Widow Holds Converse With a Captain, Makes the Acquaintance of a Young Man, and Receives a Telegraphic Shock, Which Ends in a Railway Journey

Chapter Four - A Double Dilemma and Its Consequences

Chapter Five - An Accident and Its Consequences

Chapter Six - History of the Iron Horse

Chapter Seven - Little Gertie Comes Out in a New Light, and Bob Receives Good News

Chapter Eight - Mrs. Marrot and Bob Visit the Great Clatterby "Works."

Chapter Nine - Concerning Domestic Economy and Difficulties--surprises and Explanations

Chapter Ten - Sharp Practice

Chapter Eleven - Sharp Practice--continued

Chapter Twelve - Loo's Garden

Chapter Thirteen - Treats of Railway Literature, Sleepy Porters, Crowded Platforms, Foolish Passengers, Dark Plotters, Lively Shawls, and Other Matters

Chapter Fourteen - Which is Too Full of Varied Matter to be Briefly Described

Chapter Fifteen - Treats of Mrs. Durby's Lost Parcel in Particular, and of Lost-luggage in General

Chapter Sixteen - Describes Engineering Difficulties, a Perplexing Case, and a Harmonious Meeting

Chapter Seventeen - Gertie is Mysteriously Cared For--sam Natly Dines Under Difficulties in Connexion With the Block System

Chapter Eighteen - A Soiree Wildly Interrupted, and Followed Up by Surprising Revelations

Chapter Nineteen - A Run-away Locomotive

Chapter Twenty - A Nest "Harried."

Chapter Twenty One - The Diamond Ring and the Railway Clearing-house

Chapter Twenty Two - Mrs. Tipps Goes on a Journey, and Meets a Gentleman Who, With Much Assurance, Comments Freely on Insurance

Chapter Twenty Three - Details a Terrible Accident

Chapter Twenty Four - Results of the Accident

Chapter Twenty Five - The Last

Robert Michael Ballantyne, the Scottish master of the adventure genre for young people

The writer Robert Michael Ballantyne, who throughout his life dedicated himself to creating literary works for children and young people, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on April 24, 1825, into a family of printers and publishers.

At the age of 16, this descendant of the marriage between Alexander Ballantyne and Anne Randall Scott, moved to Canada where he worked for six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Some time later, he returned to his native land and published his first book: "Hudson Bay" (1848). On July 31, 1866, the creator of "The Young Fur Traders" (1856) and his great masterpiece "The Coral Island" (1858), among other works, married Jane Dickson Grant, with whom he would have six children. In order to find a calmer way of writing, without excesses or work pressures, Ballantyne decided, shortly before losing his life, to leave his London home for a while to visit Rome, but death, which came upon him on February 8, 1894, caused the author to die on Italian soil. "Martin Rattler" (1858), "The Dog Crusoe and his Master" (1860),"The Gorilla Hunters" (1861), “ The Iron Horse” (1871), “The Norsemen in the West” (1872), “Post Haste” (1880) and “The Dog Crusoe and His Master” (1894) are other of the most recognized titles that make up the extensive literary work of this Scottish writer who created more than a hundred novels and illustrated most of his adventure stories with drawings that not only gave a great graphic force to these texts that emerged from his own experiences (it should be noted that Ballantyne worked as a fireman and lighthouse watchman just to have accurate information about those activities that inspired him to create stories). They were also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh as a sample of this artistic facet that he developed through watercolours.

The Editor, P.C. 2022

THE IRON HORSE

Robert Michael Ballantyne

Chapter One - Treats of the Engine-driver's House and Household

Talk of earthquakes! not all the earthquakes that have rumbled in Ecuador or toppled over the spires and dwellings of Peru could compare, in the matter of dogged pertinacity, with that earthquake which diurnally and hourly shocked little Gertie's dwelling, quivered the white dimity curtains of little Gertie's bed and shook little Gertie's frame. A graceful, rounded little frame it was; yet strong, and firmly knit—perhaps in consequence of its having been from infancy so constantly and so well shaken together.

Her neat little body was surmounted by a head which no sculptor in search of an antique model would have chosen. Gertie's profile was not Grecian; her features were not classic—but they were comely, and rosy, and so sweet that most people wanted to kiss them, and many people did. Gertie did not object. Probably, being only six, she imagined that this was the ordinary and natural method of salutation. Yet it was observable that the child did not reciprocate kisses except in one or two special cases. She had evidently a mind of her own, a fact which was displayed most strikingly, in the passionate manner in which she reciprocated the embraces of John Marrot, her father, when that large hairy individual came in of an evening, and, catching her in his long arms, pressed her little body to his damp pilot–cloth–coated breast and her chubby face to his oily, smoke–and–soot begrimed countenance, forgetful for the moment of the remonstrance from his wife that was sure to follow:—

"Now then, John, there you go again. You ain't got no more power of subjewin' your feelings than one of your own ingines, w'ich is the schreechin'ist, fizzin'ist, crashin'ist, bustin' things I ever 'ad the misfortune to 'ave to do with. There's a clean frock just put on this mornin' only fit for the wash–tub now?"

But John was an easy–going man. He was mild, kind, sedate, undemonstrative by nature, and looked upon slight matrimonial breezes as being good for the health. It was only Gertie who could draw him into demonstrations of feeling such as we have described, and, as we have said, she always reciprocated them violently, increasing thereby the wash–tub necessity tenfold.

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.

Gertie's house—or Gertie's father's house, if you prefer it—stood close to the embankment of one of our great arterial railways—which of them, for reasons best known to ourself, we don't intend to tell, but, for the reader's comfort, we shall call it the Grand National Trunk Railway. So close did the house stand to the embankment that timid female passengers were known occasionally to scream as they approached it, under the impression that the train had left the rails and was about to dash into it—an impression which was enhanced and somewhat justified by the circumstance that the house stood with one of its corners; instead of its side, front, or back; towards the line; thereby inducing a sudden sensation of wrongness in the breasts of the twenty thousand passengers who swept past it daily. The extreme edge of its most protruding stone was exactly three yards four inches—by measurement— from the left rail of the down line.

Need we say more to account for the perpetual state of earthquakedom, in which that house was involved?

But the tremors and shocks to which it was exposed—by night and by day—was not all it had to bear. In certain directions of the wind it was intermittently enveloped in clouds of mingled soot and steam, and, being situated at a curve on the line where signalling became imminently needful, it was exposed to all the varied horrors of the whistle from the sharp screech of interrogation to the successive bursts of exasperation, or the prolonged and deadly yell of intimidation, with all the intermediate modulations—so that, what with the tremors, and shocks, and crashes, and shrieks, and thunderous roar of trains, Gertie's father's house maintained an upright front in circumstances that might have been equalled but could not have been surpassed by those of the Eddystone Lighthouse in the wildest of winter storms, while it excelled that celebrated building in this, that it faced a storm which knew no calm, but raged furiously all the year round.

John Marrot was an engine–driver on the Grand National Trunk Railway. This is equivalent to saying that he was a steady, sober, trustworthy man. None but men of the best character are nowadays put in so responsible a position. Nearly all the drivers on the line were of this kind—some better than others, no doubt, but all good. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. As in the best regulated families accidents will happen, so, on the best conducted lines, an occasional black sheep will get among the drivers, but this is the exception that proves the rule. The rule in the Grand National Trunk Railway was—get the best drivers and pay them well. The same may be said of the firemen, whose ambition was ultimately to drive the iron chargers which they fed. Besides being all that we have said, John was a big, burly, soft–hearted, hard–headed man, who knew that two and two in ordinary circumstances made four, and who didn't require to be told that his left foot was not his right one.

It was generally supposed that John Marrot had no nerves, and that his muscles had imbibed some of the iron of which his engine was composed. This was a mistake, though there was some truth in both suppositions.

John's family consisted of himself when at home, which, although often, was never for long; his wife—fat and fair, capable of being roused, but, on the whole, a good, sensible, loving woman; his eldest daughter, Lucy or Loo—nineteen, dark, pretty, and amiable; his youngest daughter, Gertrude, alias Gertie—six, sunny and serious, at least as serious as was possible for one so young, so innocent, so healthy, and so happy as she; his son Bob, aged twelve, who was a lamp–boy at the great station not far off, and of whom it may be briefly said that he was "no better than he should be," and, lastly, the baby—not yet at the walking period of life, with a round head, round body, round eyes, and a round dozen at least—if not more—of hairs standing straight up on the top of his bald pate, suggesting the idea that he must at some period of his life have been singed by a passing locomotive—an event not by any means beyond the bounds of possibility, for it may be written, with more truth of this, than of any other infant, that he had been born and nurtured amid thunder, smoke, and blazes.

As might have been expected in the circumstances, he was a powerful baby. We cannot afford space for a full description, but it would be wrong to omit mention of the strength of his lungs. The imitative tendency of children is proverbial. Clearly the locomotive was baby Marrot's pattern in many things. No infant that ever drew breath equalled this one at a yell. There was absolutely a touch of sublimity in the sound of the duet—frequently heard—when baby chanced to be performing a solo and his father's engine went shrieking past with a running accompaniment! It is a disputed point to this day which of the two beat the other; and it is an admitted fact that nothing else could equal either.

There were two other inmates of John Marrot's house—not members of the family. One was his fireman, William Garvie, who lodged with him, the other a small servant or maid–of–all–work who led a rugged existence, but appeared to enjoy it, although it kept her thin. Her name was Ann Stocks, familiarly known as Nanny.

We are thus particular in describing the engine–driver's household because, apart from other reasons, a group of human beings who could live, and thrive, and eat, and sleep, and love, and learn, and so forth, in such circumstances is noteworthy.

It was quite a treat—believe it, reader—to see little Gertie and the baby slumber while the engines were apparently having "a night of it" outside! Come with us and behold. It is 10:30 p.m. Father is crossing country on the limited mail at any pace you choose between fifty and eighty miles an hour, time having been lost at the last station, owing to the unaccountable disappearance of a first–class passenger, and time having to be made up by fair means or otherwise. His mate stands beside him. In the family mansion pretty Loo sleeps like a "good angel," as she is, in a small room farthest from the corner next the line, but with her we have nothing to do at present. Nanny, also sound asleep, lies in some place of profound obscurity among the coals in the lower regions of the house, laying in that store of health and vigour which will enable her to face the rugged features of the following day. We dismiss her, also, with the hope that she may survive the coal–dust and the lack of oxygen, and turn to the chief room of the house—the kitchen, parlour, dining–room, drawing–room, nursery, and family bedroom all in one. Engine–drivers are not always so badly off for space in their domiciles, but circumstances which are not worth mentioning have led John Marrot to put up with little. In this apartment, which is wonderfully clean and neat, there are two box–beds and a sort of crib. Baby sleeps—as only babies can—in perfect bliss in the crib; Gertie slumbers with her upturned sweet little face shaded by the white dimity curtains in one bed; Mrs Molly Marrot snores like a grampus in the other. It is a wide bed, let deep into the wall, as it were, and Mrs M's red countenance looms over the counterpane like the setting sun over a winter fog–bank.

Hark? A rumble in the far distance—ominous and low at first, but rapidly increasing to the tones of distant thunder. It is the night express for the North—going at fifty miles an hour. At such a rate of speed it might go right round the world in twenty–one days! While yet distant the whistle is heard, shrill, threatening, and prolonged. Louder and louder; it is nearing the curve now and the earth trembles— the house trembles too, but Gertie's parted lips breathe as softly as before; baby's eyes are as tight and his entire frame as still as when he first fell asleep. Mrs Marrot, too, maintains the monotony of her snore. Round the curve it comes at last, hammer and tongs, thundering like Olympus, and yelling like an iron fiend. The earthquake is "on!" The embankment shudders; the house quivers; the doors, windows, cups, saucers, and pans rattle. Outside, all the sledge–hammers and anvils in Vulcan's smithy are banging an obbligato accompaniment to the hissing of all the serpents that Saint Patrick drove out of Ireland as the express comes up; still Gertie's rest is unbroken. She does indeed give a slight smile and turn her head on the other side, as if she had heard a pleasant whisper, but nothing more. Baby, too, vents a prolonged sigh before plunging into a profounder depth of repose. Mrs Marrot gives a deprecatory grunt between snores, but it is merely a complimentary "Hallo! 's that you?" sort of question which requires no answer.

As the rushing storm goes by a timid and wakeful passenger happens to lower the window and look out. He sees the house. "It's all over?" are his last words as he falls back in his seat and covers his face with his hands. He soon breathes more freely on finding that it is not all over, but fifteen or twenty miles lie between him and the house he expected to annihilate, before his nervous system has quite recovered its tone.

This, reader, is a mere sample of the visitations by which that family was perpetually affected, though not afflicted. Sometimes the rushing masses were heavy goods trains, which produced less fuss, but more of earthquake. At other times red lights, intimating equally danger and delay, brought trains to a stand close to the house, and kept them hissing and yelling there as if querulously impatient to get on. The uproar reached its culminating point about 12:45, on the night of which we write, when two trains from opposite directions were signalled to wait, which they did precisely opposite John Marrot's windows, and there kept up such a riot of sound as feeble language is impotent to convey. To the accustomed ears the whistle and clank of a checked and angry pilot–engine might have been discerned amid the hullabaloo; but to one whose experience in such matters was small, it might have seemed as though six or seven mad engines were sitting up on end, like monster rabbits on a bank, pawing the air and screaming out their hearts in the wild delirium of unlimited power and ungovernable fury. Still, although they moved a little, the sleepers did not awake—so potent is the force of habit! However, it did not last long. The red lights removed their ban, the white lights said "Come on," the monster rabbits gave a final snort of satisfaction and went away—each with its tail of live–stock, or minerals, or goods, or human beings, trailing behind it.

The temporary silence round the house was very intense, as may well be believed—so much so that the heavy foot–fall of a man in the bypath that led to it sounded quite intrusive.

He was a tall broad–shouldered man in a large pilot coat, cap and boots, and appeared to walk somewhat lame as he approached the door. He tried the handle. It was locked, of course.

"I thought so," he muttered in a low bass voice; "so much for a bad memory."

He rapped twice on the door, loudly, with his knuckles and then kicked it with his boot. Vain hope! If a burglar with a sledge–hammer had driven the door in, he would have failed to tickle the drum of any ear there. The man evidently was aware of this, for, changing his plan, he went round to a back window on the ground–floor, and opened it at the top with some difficulty. Peeping in he gazed for some time intently, and then exclaimed under his breath, "Ha! it's open by good luck." Gathering a handful of gravel, he threw it into the house with considerable force.

The result proved that he had not aimed at random, for the shower entered the open door of Nanny's sleeping–cellar and fell smartly on her face.

It is well–known that sailors, although capable of slumbering through loud and continuous noises, can be awakened by the slightest touch, so likewise Nanny. On receiving the shower of gravel she incontinently buried her head in the blankets, drew an empty coal–scuttle over her shoulders and began to shout thieves! and murder! at the top of her voice. Having taken such pains to muffle it, of course no one heard her cries. The man, if a burglar, had evidently a patient philosophical turn of mind, for he calmly waited till the damsel was exhausted, and when she at length peeped out to observe the effect of her heroic efforts at self–preservation he said quietly, "Nanny, lass, don't be a fool! It's me; open the door; I've gone an' forgot my latch–key."

"Oh la! master, it ain't you, is it? It ain't thieves and robbers, is it?"

"No, no. Open the door like a good girl."

"And it ain't an accident, is it?" continued Nanny partially dressing in haste. "Oh, I knows it's a accident, Missus always prophesied as a accident would come to pass some day, which has come true. You're not maimed, master?"

"No, no; be quick, girl!"

"Nor Willum ain't maimed, is he? He ain't dead? Oh don't say Willum is—"

"Bill Garvie's all right," said the engine–driver, as he brushed past the girl and went up–stairs.

Now, although Mrs Marrot's ears were totally deaf to locomotives they were alert enough to the sound of her husband's voice. When, therefore, he entered the kitchen, he found her standing on the floor with an ample shawl thrown round her.

"Nothing wrong?" she inquired anxiously.

"Nothing, Molly, my dear, only I got a slight bruise on the leg in the engine–shed to–day, and I had to go up an' show it to the doctor, d'ye see, before comin' home, which has made me later than usual."

"Are you sure it's not a back hurt, father?" asked Loo, coming in at the moment—also enveloped in a shawl, and looking anxious.

"Sure? ay, I'm sure enough; it's only a scratch. See here."

Saying this he removed one of his boots, and pulling up his trousers displayed a bandaged leg.

"Well, but we can't see through the bandages, you know," said Mrs Marrot.

"Let me take them off, father, and I'll replace—"

"Take 'em off!" exclaimed John, pulling down the leg of his trouser and rising with a laugh. "No, no, Loo; why, it's only just bin done up all snug by the doctor, who'd kick up a pretty shindy if he found I had undid it. There's one good will come of it anyhow, I shall have a day or two in the house with you all; for the doctor said I must give it a short rest. So, off to bed again, Loo. This is not an hour for a respectable young woman to be wanderin' about in her night–dress. Away with you!"

"Was any one else hurt, father?" said Loo. She asked the question anxiously, but there was a slight flush on her cheek and a peculiar smile which betrayed some hidden feeling.

"No one else," returned her father. "I tell 'ee it wasn't an accident at all—it was only a engine that brushed up agin me as I was comin' out o' the shed. That's all; so I just came home and left Will Garvie to look after our engine. There, run away."

Loo smiled, nodded and disappeared, followed by Mrs Marrot, who went, like a sensible woman, to see that her alarmed domestic was all right. While she was away John went to the crib and kissed the rosy cheek of his sleeping boy. Then he bent over the bed with the white dimity curtains to Miss Gertie's forehead, for which purpose he had to remove a mass of curly hair with his big brown hand.

"Bless you, my darling," he said in silent speech, "you came near bein' fatherless this night—nearer than you ever was before." He kissed her again tenderly, and a fervent "thank the Lord!" rose from his heart to heaven.

In less than half–an–hour after this the engine–driver's family sank into profound repose, serenaded by the music of a mineral train from the black country, which rushed laboriously past their dwelling like an over–weighted thunderbolt.

Chapter Two - The Driver Visits a Little Elderly Gentlewoman and Prepares the Iron Horse for Action

Next day John Marrot spent the brief period of repose accorded by the doctor to his leg in romping about the house with the baby in his arms. Being a large man, accustomed to much elbow–room and rapid motion, and the house being small, John may be said to have been a dangerous character in the family on such occasions. Apart from baby, no elephant was ever more sluggish in his motions; but when coupled—professionally speaking—to his own tender infant, John knew no bounds, his wife knew no rest and his baby knew no higher earthly bliss.

Sometimes it was on his shoulder, sometimes on his head and often on his foot, riding with railway speed to "Banbury Cross." Again it was on its back in the crib or on the bed being tickled into fits of laughter, which bid fair at times to merge into fits of convulsion, to the horror of little Gertie, who came in for a large share of that delightful holiday's enjoyment, but whose spirit was frequently harrowed with alarm at the riotous conduct of her invalid father. In his glee the man might have been compared to a locomotive with a bad driver, who was constantly shutting off the steam and clapping on the brakes too soon or too late, thus either falling short of or overshooting his mark. What between the door and the dresser, the fire, the crib, the window, and the furniture, John showed himself a dreadfully bad pilot and was constantly running into or backing out of difficulties. At last towards the afternoon of that day, while performing a furious charge round the room with baby on his head, he overturned the wash–tub, which filled the baby with delirious joy, and Gertie with pleasurable alarm.

As for Mrs Marrot, she was too happy to have her husband at home for a whole day to care much about trifles, nevertheless she felt it her duty to reprove him, lest the children should learn a bad lesson.

"There now, John, I knew you'd do it at last. You're much too violent, and you shouldn't ought to risk the baby's neck in that way. Such a mess! How can you expect me to keep things tidy if you go on so?"

John was very penitent. He did not reply at first, but putting baby into the crib—where it instantly drowned with a great yell the shriek of a passing train—he went down on his knees and began to "swab" up the water with a jack–towel. Loo ran laughingly from the corner where she had been sewing, and insisted on doing it for him.

"You'll hurt your leg, father, if you bend it so, and I'm sure it must be swelled and pained enough already with so much romping."

"Not a bit, Loo," objected John. "It was me as caused the mess, an' justice requires that I should swab it up. There, go sew that sentiment into a sampler an' hang it up over yer bed."

But Loo would not give in. While they were still engaged in the controversy the door opened, and young Bob Marrot stood before them with his eyes wide open and his hair straight up on end, as if he had recently seen a ghost. This aspect, however, was no sign of alarm, being his normal condition.

"Ha! seems to me, somehow, that somebody's bin up to somethin'."

"Right Bob," replied his father, rising from his knees and throwing the jack–towel at him.

The lad easily evaded the shot, being well accustomed to elude much more deadly missiles, and, picking up the towel, quietly set to work to perform the duty in dispute.

"You're wanted," he said, looking up at his father while he wrung the towel over a tin basin.

"Eh! Where?"

"Up at the shed."

"I'm on sick leave," said John.

"Can't help that. The 6:30 p.m. passenger train must be drove, and there's nobody left but you to drive it. Jones is away with a goods train owin' to Maxwell having sprained his ankle, and Long Thompson is down with small–pox, so you'll have to do it. I offered 'em my services, but the manager he said that intelligent lads couldn't be spared for such menial work, and told me to go and fetch you."

"Maxwell had no business to sprain his ankle," said John Marrot. "Hows'ever," he added cheerfully, "I've had a rare good holiday, an' the leg's all but right again, so, Molly, let's have an early tea; I'll give it a good rest for another half–hour and then be ready for the 6:30 p.m–ers. Cut off your steam, will you?"

This last observation was made to the baby, and was accompanied by a shake and a toss towards the ceiling which caused him to obey instantly, under the impression, no doubt that the fun was to be renewed. 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.

"Now, don't stand more than you can help on your hurt leg, John."

"Certainly not, duckie," said John, stooping to kiss the upturned face; "I'll sit on the rail as much as I can, like a 'Merican racoon. By the way," he added, turning suddenly to Loo, "you delivered that note from young Mr Tipps to his mother?"

"Yes, immediately after I got it from you; and I waited to see if there was an answer, but she said there wasn't. It must have contained bad news, I fear, for she turned pale while she read it."

"H'm, well," said John, putting on his cap, "don't know nothin' about what was in it, so it's no bizzness o' mine."

With a hearty good–evening to all, and a special embrace to Gertie, the engine–driver left his home, accompanied by Bob his hopeful son.

"Mr Sharp," said Bob, as they walked along, "has bin makin' oncommon partikler inquiries among us about some o' the porters. I raither think they're a bad lot."

"Not at all," replied his father severely. "They're no more a bad lot than the drivers, or, for the matter of that, than the clerks or the directors, or the lamp–boys. You ought to be gittin' old enough by this time, Bob, to know that every lot o' fish in this world, however good, has got a few bad uns among 'em. As a rule railway directors and railway clerks, and railway porters and railway officials of all sorts are good—more or less—the same may be said of banks an' insurances, an' all sorts of things—but, do what ye may, a black sheep or two will git in among 'em, and, of course, the bigger the consarn, the more numerous the black sheep. Even the clergy ain't free from that uniwersal law of natur. But what's Mr Sharp bin inquiring arter?"

"Ah—wot indeed!" replied Bob; "'ow should I know? Mr Sharp ain't the man to go about the line with a ticket on his back tellin' wot he's arter. By no means. P'lice superintendents ain't usually given to that; but he's arter somethin' partickler."

"Well, that ain't no bizzness of ours, Bob, so we don't need to trouble our heads about it. There's nothin' like mindin' yer own bizzness. Same time," added John after a short pause, "that's no reason why, as a sea–farin' friend o' mine used to say, a man shouldn't keep his weather–eye open, d'ye see?"

Bob intimated that he did see, by winking with the eye that chanced to be next his parent; but further converse between father and son was interrupted at a turn in the road, where they were joined by a stout, broad–shouldered young man, whose green velveteen jacket vest, and trousers bespoke him a railway porter.

"Evenin', Sam," said our driver with a friendly nod; "goin' on night dooty, eh?"

"Yes, worse luck," replied Sam, thrusting his powerful hands into his pockets.

"Why so, Sam, you ain't used to mind night dooty?"

"No more I do," said Sam testily, "but my missus is took bad, and there's no one to look after her properly—for that old 'ooman we got ain't to be trusted. 'Tis a hard thing to have to go on night dooty when a higher dooty bids me stay at home."

There was a touch of deep feeling in the tone in which the latter part of Sam Natly's remark was uttered. His young wife, to whom he had been only a year married, had fallen into bad health, and latterly the doctors had given him little encouragement to hope for her recovery.

"Sam," said John Marrot stopping, "I'll go an' send a friend, as I knows of, to look after yer wife."

"A friend?" said Sam; "you can't mean any o' your own family, John, for you haven't got time to go back that length now, and—"

"Well, never mind, I've got time to go where I'm agoin'. You run on to the shed, Bob, and tell Garvie that I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

The engine–driver turned off abruptly, and, increasing his pace to a smart walk, soon stood before the door of one of those uncommonly small neat suburban villas which the irrigating influence of the Grand National Trunk Railway had caused to spring up like mushrooms around the noisy, smoky, bustling town of Clatterby—to the unspeakable advantage of that class of gentlefolk who possess extremely limited incomes, but who, nevertheless, prefer fresh air to smoke.

"Is your missus at 'ome?" he inquired of the stout elderly woman who answered to his modest summons—for although John was wont to clatter and bang through the greater part of his daily and nightly career, he was tender of touch and act when out of his usual professional beat.

"Yes; do you wish to see her?"

"I does, my dear. 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. He was ushered into a small and poorly furnished but extremely neat and clean parlour, where sat a thin little old lady in an easy–chair, looking very pale.

"Ev'nin', ma'am," said John, bowing and looking rougher and bigger than usual in such a small apartment.

"You—you—don't bring bad news, I hope!—my son Joseph—"

"Oh no, Mrs Tipps, not by no means," said Marrot, hasting to relieve the timid old lady's feelings, "Mr Joseph is all right—nothing wotiver wrong with him—nor likely to be, ma'am. Leastwise he wos all right w'en I seed 'im last."

"And when might that be?" asked the timid old lady with a sigh of relief as she clasped her hands tightly together.

"W'y, let me see," said John, touching his forehead, "it was yesterday evenin' w'en I came up with the northern express."

"But many accidents might have happened since yesterday evening," said Mrs Tipps, still in an anxious tone.

"That's true, ma'am. All the engines on the Grand Trunk from the Pentland Firth to the Channel might have bu'sted their bilers since that time—but it ain't likely," replied John, with a bland smile.

"And—and what was my son doing when you passed him? Did you speak to him?"

"Speak to him! Bless your heart, ma'am," said John, with another benignant smile, "I went past Langrye station at sixty mile an hour, so we hadn't much chance to speak to each other. It would have been as much as we could have managed, if we'd tried it, to exchange winks."

"Dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps in a low tone. "Is that the usual rate of travelling on your railway?"

"Oh dear no, ma'am. It's only my express train as goes at that rate. Other expresses run between forty and fifty miles, an' or'nary trains average about thirty miles an hour—goods, they go at about twenty, more or less; but they varies a good deal. The train I drives is about the fastest in the kingdom, w'ich is pretty much the same as sayin' it's the fastest in the world, ma'am. Sometimes I'm obleeged to go as high as nigh seventy miles an hour to make up time."

"The fastest mail–coaches in my young days," said Mrs Tipps, "used to go at the rate of ten miles an hour, I believe."

"Pretty much so," said John. "They did manage a mile or two more, I'm told, but that was their average of crawlin' with full steam on."

"And you sometimes drive at sixty or seventy miles an hour?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"With people in the carriages?"

"Cer'nly, ma'am."

"How I wish that I had lived a hundred years ago!" sighed poor Mrs Tipps.

"You'd have bin a pretty old girl by this time if you had," thought the engine–driver, but he was too polite to give utterance to the thought.

"And what was my son doing when you passed him at that frightful speed— you could see him, I suppose?"

"Oh yes, ma'am, I could see him well enough. He was talkin' an' laughin', as far as I could make out, with an uncommon pretty girl."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps, flushing slightly—for she was extremely sensitive,—and evidently much relieved by this information. "Well, my good man, what do you wish me to do for you? anything that is in my power to—"

"Thankee, ma'am, but I don't want you to do nothin' for me."

"Then what have you to say to me?" added the old lady with a little smile that was clearly indicative of a kind little heart.

"I've come to take the liberty, ma'am, of askin' you to do one of my mates a favour."

"Most willingly," said Mrs Tipps with animation. "I shall never forget that you saved my dear Joseph's life by pulling him off the line when one of your dreadful engines was going straight over him. Anything that I am capable of doing for you or your friends will be but a poor return for what you have done for me. I have often asked you to allow me to make me some such return, Mr Marrot, and have been grieved at your constant refusal. I am delighted that you come to me now."

"You're very good to say so, ma'am. The fact is that one o' my friends, a porter on the line, named Sam Natly, has a young wife who is, I fear, far gone wi' consumption; she's worse to–night an' poor Sam's obliged to go on night dooty, so he can't look arter her, an' the old 'ooman they've got ain't worth nothin'. So I thought I'd make bold, ma'am, to ask you to send yer servant to git a proper nurse to take charge of her to–night, it would be—"

"I'll go myself!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps, interrupting, and starting up with a degree of alacrity that astonished the engine–driver. "Here, write down the address on that piece of paper—you can write, I suppose?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied John, modestly, as he bent down and wrote the address in a bold flowing hand, "I raither think I can write. I write notes, on a paper I've got to fill up daily, on the engine; an' w'en a man's trained to do that, ma'am, it's my opinion he's fit to write in any circumstances whatsomedever. Why, you'd hardly believe it, ma'am, but I do assure you, that I wrote my fust an' last love–letter to my missus on the engine. I was drivin' the Lightenin' at the time—that's the name o' my engine, ma'am, an' they calls me Jack Blazes in consikence—well, I'd bin courtin' Molly, off–an'–on, for about three months. She b'longed to Pinchley station, you must know, where we used to stop to give her a drink—"

"What! to give Molly a drink?"

"No, ma'am," replied John, with a slight smile, "to give the ingine a drink. Well, she met me nigh every day 'xcept Sundays at that station, and as we'd a pretty long time there—about five minutes—we used to spend it beside the pump, an' made the most of it. But somehow I took it into my head that Molly was playin' fast an' loose with me, an' I was raither cool on her for a time. Hows'ever, her father bein' a pointsman, she wos shifted along with him to Langrye station—that's where your son is, ma'am—an' as we don't stop there we was obleeged to confine our courtship to a nod an' a wave of a handkerchief. Leastwise she shook out a white handkerchief an' I flourished a lump o' cotton–waste. Well, one day as we was close upon Langrye station—about two miles—I suddenly takes it into my head that I'd bring the thing to a pint, so I sings out to my mate—that was my fireman, ma'am—says I, `look out Jim,' an' I draws out my pencil an' bends my legs—you must always bend your legs a little, ma'am, w'en you writes on a locomotive, it makes springs of 'em, so to speak—an' I writes on the back of a blank time–bill, `Molly, my dear, no more shilly–shallyin' with me. Time's up. If you'll be tender, I'll be locomotive. Only say the word and we're coupled for life in three weeks. A white handkerchief means yes, a red 'un, no. If red, you'll see a noo driver on the 10:15 a.m. express day after to–morrow. John Marrot.' I was just in time to pitch the paper crumpled up right into her bosom," continued the driver, wiping his forehead as if the deep anxiety of that eventful period still affected him, "an' let me tell you, ma'am, it requires a deal o' nice calculation to pitch a piece o' crumpled paper true off a locomotive goin' between fifty and sixty miles an hour; but it went all straight—I could see that before we was gone."

"And what was the result?" asked the little old lady as earnestly as if that result were still pending.

"W'y, the result wos as it should be! My letter was a short 'un, but it turned out to be a powerful brake. Brought her up sharp—an' we was coupled in less than six weeks."

"Amazing phase of human life!" observed Mrs Tipps, gazing in admiration at the stalwart giant who stood deferentially before her.

"Well, it was a raither coorious kind o' proposal," said Marrot with a smile, "but it worked uncommon well. I've never wanted to uncouple since then."

"Pardon me, Mr Marrot," said Mrs Tipps, with little hysterical laugh—knowing that she was about to perpetrate a joke—"may I ask if there are any—any little tenders?"

"Oh, lots of 'em," replied John, "quite a train of 'em; four livin' an' three gone dead. The last was coupled on only a short time ago. You'll excuse me now, ma'am," he added, pulling out and consulting the ponderous chronometer with which the company supplied him, "I must go now, havin' to take charge o' the 6:30 p.m. train,—it ain't my usual train, but I'm obleeged to take it to–night owin' to one of our drivers havin' come by an accident. Evenin', ma'am."

John bowed, and retired so promptly that poor Mrs Tipps had no time to make further inquiry into the accident referred to—at the very mention of which her former alarm came back in full force. However, she wisely got the better of her own anxieties by throwing herself into those of others. Putting on her bonnet she sallied forth on her errand of mercy.

Meanwhile John Marrot proceeded to the engine–shed to prepare his iron horse for action. Here he found that his fireman, Will Garvie, and his cleaner, had been attending faithfully to their duty. The huge locomotive, which looked all the more gigantic for being under cover, was already quivering with that tremendous energy—that artificial life—which rendered it at once so useful and so powerful a servant of man. Its brasses shone with golden lustre, its iron rods and bars, cranks and pistons glittered with silvery sheen, and its heavier parts and body were gay with a new coat of green paint. Every nut and screw and lever and joint had been screwed up, and oiled, examined, tested, and otherwise attended to, while the oblong pit over which it stood when in the shed—and into which its ashes were periodically emptied—glowed with the light of its intense furnace. Ever and anon a little puff issued from its safety–valve, proving to John Marrot that there was life within his fiery steed sufficient to have blown the shed to wreck with all its brother engines, of which there were at the time two or three dozen standing—some disgorging their fire and water after a journey, and preparing to rest for the night; some letting off steam with a fiendish yell unbearably prolonged; others undergoing trifling repairs preparatory to starting next day, and a few, like that of our engine–driver, ready for instant action and snorting with impatience like war–horses "scenting the battle from afar." The begrimed warriors, whose destiny it was to ride these iron chargers, were also variously circumstanced. Some in their shirt sleeves busy with hammer and file at benches hard by; others raking out fire–boxes, or oiling machinery; all busy as bees, save the few, who, having completed their preparations, were buttoning up their jackets and awaiting the signal to charge.

At last that signal came to John Marrot—not in a loud shout of command or a trumpet–blast, but by the silent hand of Time, as indicated on his chronometer.

"But how," it may be asked, "does John Marrot know precisely the hour at which he has to start, the stations he has to stop at, the various little acts of coupling on and dropping off carriages and trucks, and returning with trains or with `empties' within fixed periods so punctually, that he shall not interfere with, run into, or delay, the operations of the hundreds of drivers whose duties are as complex, nice, important, and swift as his own."

Reader, we reply that John knows it all in consequence of the perfection of system attained in railway management. Without this, our trains and rails all over the kingdom would long ago have been smashed up into what Irishmen expressively name smithereens.

The duty of arranging the details of the system devolves on the superintendents of departments on the line, namely, the passenger, goods, and locomotive superintendents, each of whom reigns independently and supreme in his own department, but of course, like the members of a well–ordered family, they have to consult together in order that their trains may be properly horsed, and the time of running so arranged that there shall be no clashing in their distinct though united interests. When the number of trains and time of running have been fixed, and finally published by the passenger superintendent—who is also sometimes the "Out–door superintendent," and who has duties to perform that demand very considerable powers of generalship,—it is the duty of the locomotive superintendent to supply the requisite engines. This officer, besides caring for all the "plant" or rolling–stock, new and old, draws out periodically a schedule, in which is detailed to a nicety every minute act that has to be done by drivers—the hour at which each engine is to leave the shed on each day of the week, the number of each engine, its driver and fireman, and the duties to be performed; and this sheet contains complete daily (nay, almost hourly) directions for passenger, goods, and pilot–engines.

In order to secure attention to these regulations, each engineman is fined one shilling for every minute he is behind time in leaving the shed. The difficulty of making these runnings of trains dovetail into each other on lines where the traffic is great and constant, may well be understood to be considerable, particularly when it is remembered that ordinary regular traffic is interfered with constantly by numerous excursion, special, and other irregular trains, in the midst of which, also, time must be provided for the repair and renewal of the line itself, the turning of old rails, laying down of new ones, raising depressed sleepers, renewing broken chairs, etcetera,—all which is constantly going on, and that, too, at parts of the line over which hundreds of trains pass in the course of the twenty–four hours.

Besides the arrangements for the regular traffic, which are made monthly, a printed sheet detailing the special traffic, repairs of lines, new and altered signals, working arrangements, etcetera, is issued weekly to every member of the staff; particularly to engine–drivers and guards. We chance to possess one of these private sheets, issued by one of our principal railways. Let us peep behind the scenes for a moment and observe how such matters are managed.

The vacation has come to an end, and the boys of Rapscallion College will, on a certain day, pour down on the railway in shoals with money in hand and a confident demand for accommodation. This invading army must be prepared for. Ordinary trains are not sufficient for it. Delay is dangerous on railways; it must not be permitted; therefore the watchful superintendent writes an order which we find recorded as follows:—

" Wednesday, 26th April,—Accommodation must be provided on this day in the 3:10 and 6:25 p.m. Up, and 2:25 and 6:10 p.m. Down Trains, for the Cadets returning to Rapscallion College. By the Trains named, Rapscallion College tickets will be collected at Whitewater on the Down journey, and at Smokingham on the Up journey. Oldershot to send a man to Whitewater to assist in the collection of these tickets."

Again—a "Relief Train" has to be utilised. It won't "pay" to run empty trains on the line unnecessarily, therefore the superintendent has his eye on it, and writes:—