Page:The purple pennant (IA purplepennant00barb).pdf/110

Rh "Wid this." The engineer tugged gently at the lever. "Try it again if you like."

So Lanny stepped back on the platform and rolled the machine a few yards up the road and back again and seemed quite pleased and proud. Nevertheless he still denied that he would have the courage to try to do it alone. "I guess I'd better start in and work up," he said smilingly. "Maybe I could get the job of night watchman for a beginning. I suppose there is a watchman, isn't there?"

"There's two or three of thim."

Lanny tried not to let his disappointment show. "That's what I'll do then," he laughed. "And if I get cold I'll sit here by your boiler."

"Oh, there's no watchman on this job," said the other carelessly. "We just put the lanterns up. That's enough. It's only where there's a good dale of travelin' that they do be havin' the watchman on the job. Well, here's where we get busy. Come along, you ould teakettle. The boss wants you. So long, lad."

The little roller rumbled off up the road and Lanny, whistling softly, wandered back the way he had come, stopping here and there to watch operations. But once around the corner he no longer dawdled. He set out at his best pace instead, went a block westward and one northward