Page:Bob Chester's Grit.djvu/133

Rh "Is that the kid with a pass Jenkins left?"

"Yes."

"Sure he can ride with me. Help him up."

Bob, however, needed no assistance, and no sooner had the permission been granted than he was climbing into the engine cab.

Before he had succeeded, Hosmer whispered:

"Barney's all right—and he doesn't like Jenkins. Tell him about the joke the boys are going to play." And then he continued aloud: "I'll either come for you, myself, or send some one when we reach Hastings. Orders give us the right of way to Hastings, Barney."

"O. K.," grunted the engineer, as he turned to scrutinize Bob, at the same time standing so that he could glance up the track toward the station to catch the signal to start.

Acting on the conductor's advice, Bob narrated the plan Tom had devised for having fun at Jenkins' expense, and was rewarded by seeing the engineer's face break into a broad grin, and then to hear him roar with laughter.

"That'll make 'Old Miser's' hair turn gray," he gasped between laughs. "He'll never get over it, never!

"Oh, Ned," he called to his fireman, who had been out oiling some part of the engine, "the boys are going to put one over on 'Miser' Jenkins."