MERRIWELL’S GENEROSITY.
The conductor was astounded. He stared at the tied and bleeding
engineer, and then at Merry, who was at the throttle. Then he clambered
down over the coal in the tender, crying:
“Well, what in thunder has happened here?”
Old Joe groaned and opened his eyes.
“I’ll kill him!” he muttered, thickly.
“I’ve had a fight with Hicks,” said Frank.
“A fight? What about?”
“He jumped on me and tried to beat my brains out with a wrench.”
“I’ll kill him!” grated the engineer again.
“This beats all!” said the conductor, faintly. “He didn’t seem to
succeed very well.”
“He came near succeeding. I thought he would one spell.”
“Well, this is a fine scrape. This is Joe’s engine, and he’ll have to
take the train through.”
“He isn’t able to take the train through now.”
“What can we do?”
“Send me a brakeman who can fire, and I’ll take her through.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“You’re no engineer.”
“I am engineer enough to do that trick.”
“Well, I’ll send you a man, and we’ll wait for instructions at the next
station. If this don’t beat thunder!”
As the conductor scrambled back over the tender, Frank flung open the
firebox door and put the coal to her. During the struggle the fire had
not been tended, of course, and the steam was beginning to show the
effect of it.
In a few minutes one of the brakemen came forward, and he fired her
to the next station, where the conductor held up and telegraphed for
instructions.
By this time old Joe was begging to be released.
“Look here, Merriwell,” he said, “you’re goin’ to do me out of my job,
and I can’t afford to lose the place.”
“It’s not my fault,” said Frank. “You will be fortunate if you get off
by simply losing your job.”
“Now, ye don’t mean to push me, do ye?” whined the thoroughly
subjugated man. “You wouldn’t do that?”
“Why not?”
“That would be tough! It can’t be you’d do it.”
“You deserve it. You tried to kill me.”
“Mebbe I did for a minute,” confessed the engineer; “but I was crazy
mad, and I didn’t know what I was doin’. I’ve had a heap of trouble
lately, and it’s broke me all up. You don’t want to ruin me entirely,
do ye?”
“I do not want to ruin anyone. You brought it on yourself.”
Old Joe had managed to sit up in an awkward position, and he raised his
eyes to Frank appealingly. He was a pitiful-looking object, with his
begrimed, blood-stained face. Frank could not help feeling sorry for
the man.
“I kept my word when I promised you I wouldn’t trouble Jack and Nell,”
said the engineer; “and I never bothered you no more till you forced
yourself onter me.”
“I did not force myself onto you. I was placed here by the manager. I
simply did what I was told to do.”
“I know that’s right; but I didn’t like ye, and I had taken some drinks
to stiddy my nerves this morning. The stuff got inter my head.”
“It’s a wonder the stuff has not lost you your job before this.”
“You hadn’t oughter talked to me the way ye did.”
“I told you the truth. You were trying to knock me on the first trip,
and you know it. I have not kept eyes and ears open since taking this
work without finding out something. I have listened to the talk in the
roundhouse, and I know that an engineer can knock out the best fireman
who ever swung a shovel.”
Old Joe was silent, and his face showed that Frank had hit upon the
truth.
“You were not cutting off short,” Frank went on, “and you were running
your pump wrong, besides having her hooked up different from usual. If
we had lost time, I should have been blamed for it, and it is likely I
should have been taken off. That was what you were counting on.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” admitted old Joe; “but you got the best of me,
and it’s no use to kick a man when he’s down.”
The old engineer was pitiful in his humbleness, and Frank began to feel
some misgivings about pushing him further, for he realized that it
meant the utter ruin of the man.
Watching Merry’s face, old Joe fancied he saw a gleam of hope.
“What can I do now?” Frank asked. “It is too late, for the conductor
has dispatched for instructions.”
“Perhaps it ain’t too late,” eagerly said the engineer, “if another
dispatch is sent that I am all right. Perhaps you can fix it. I can
take the train through, if I have a chance. Won’t you do that for me,
Merriwell? Think--think what it means to me!”
Frank swung down from the engine and went after the conductor.
“I wish to speak with you a moment, Mr. Evans,” he said, when he found
the conductor in the little office of the station.
He drew the man aside, and said:
“Old Joe has come round, and seems to be all right now. He is begging
for a chance to take the train through.”
“What?”
The conductor was amazed.
“That’s right,” nodded Frank.
“Well, the jig is up with him. The old man won’t have a crazy engineer
running things.”
“What did you wire?”
“That Hicks was knocked out, and somebody must take the train through.”
“You did not give particulars?”
“Couldn’t.”
“Then, as yet, but ourselves and the train hands know there was a fight
between us.”
“And the dispatcher here.”
“Well, you might send another message that Hicks had recovered and was
able to take the train through. This is a freight, and perhaps the old
man will let him go on with it, as there is no other regular engineer
to take it.”
Evans stared at Frank in astonishment.
“You are the queerest chap I ever struck,” he exclaimed.
“Why?”
“Most fellows in your place would be ready to hang Hicks.”
“Perhaps so; but I feel as if he were hanging over a chasm, and I might
save him or push him down. If I do not give him a hand, my conscience
will trouble me.”
“If you do, the chances are about ten to one that it will put you in a
bad scrape.”
“How?”
“It won’t be much trouble for him to make out that you were in the
wrong, and he’ll do it, too.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“I do.”
“I think he will be so glad to get out of the scrape that he won’t try
anything dirty. He says he will take the train through, and run it
right. He will not dare tackle me again, and I shall watch him.”
“But the old man will have to let you take us through if old Joe
doesn’t. Saunders can fire for you, and it will give you a great
chance to show what you can do. It will be a direct step upward for
you.”
“Over the body of another man?”
“That’s the way men get on in this world, my boy.”
“It seems to be; but I do not feel like climbing the ladder by pushing
others down.”
“Well, just as you say. If you are for giving old Joe such a chance, I
don’t kick. I’ll dispatch that he is all right now and able to take the
train through.”
“Do it.”
Evans did so, and in a short time received an answer: “All right; go
ahead.”
That settled it. Frank went back to the engine in a hurry, and said:
“I have fixed it.”
“How?” asked Hicks, eagerly.
For answer Frank set him free.
“I ask no promises of you,” he said; “but Evans and the train men know
what has happened. If you try to knock me with the general manager,
they will have something to say.”
“Oh, I won’t try any knocking. I promise that. You are usin’ me better
than I deserve, and I appreciate it. I won’t fergit it--I won’t fergit
it!”