Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/210

 The anger of the station-master was terrible, and he was at first about to give us all in charge; but we soothed him after a time, and Moozeby precipitated a diamond scarf-pin into his tie; and we shook hands with him, and trudged off towards the village to get beds.

Our path lay by the side of the line; and, when about a quarter of a mile from the station, we came upon a nice quiet siding, and Pinniger glanced at Moozeby.

"All right," said Moozeby, who had refreshed himself after his recent strain with half a bottle of champagne and the breast of a fowl; "I don't feel so tired as I did, and I fancy I might get on better now. I was flurried before."

This time he went to work more methodically. We all sat down on the waterproofs and the men smoked, while Moozeby commenced at the engine, to make sure of that at any. We had decided to limit ourselves to an engine and one carriage, to save Moozeby as much as possible.

But Moozeby wasted time and strength to begin with; for, knowing but little about engines, he half-precipitated a pumping engine, having, as Pinniger remarked, probably only ordered "an engine," without stating on the order-form the kind of engine required.

However, Moozeby tried again, and presently we had the consolation of seeing a magnificent compound, leading bogie, four coupled locomotive gradually assuming shape; Moozeby was a little irritated on seeing this, as such a powerful engine was a waste of his strength, but he went on with it; and at length he declared it finished.

Still it didn't look quite right—there were parts through which you could pass the hand, which we were all convinced was not the case in an ordinary manufactured engine—however, we were glad to get anything.

Then Moozeby went to work at the carriage, but that came very, very slowly, for he was getting exhausted; and when it did appear he did not seem able to consolidate it properly. It would not set. There it was, however, and Thripling stepped into it; but the next moment we heard angry words coming from underneath it, and it turned out that Thripling had fallen through a part of the floor which had not set, on to the permanent way.

Then Moozeby got in and finished the precipitation of the floor of one compartment, and we all crowded into that; but presently Maud Wimble felt the part she was on getting nebulous again, and she found herself standing on the ground with her head and shoulders in the carriage. However, Moozeby patched it up again for the time.

Then we remembered that none of us could drive an engine, and poor Moozeby had