The special was halting, with little puffs, and the president swung down from the steps. He looked about him with a nervous, running glance up and down the platform. If the boy were not here, he could not wait....
“Hello!” He laid his hands on a pair of broad shoulders that pushed toward him out of the dusk. “I want you--right off!”
“All right, sir, I’m coming.” There was a note of joy in the voice that warmed the older man’s heart.
“You ’re ready, are you?” He had turned toward the steps, with quick motion.
The boy laughed a little, hurrying beside him. “Not tonight. I must wait. There are things--”
The president paused, one foot on the step, glaring at him. “What things--Telegraph--” He waved a hand toward the office.
“It is n’t that.” The boy spoke quickly, the puffs from the engine driving his words aside. Nothing could seem important except that great engine, panting to be off, and the nervous man gripping the rail at his side. “It is n’t that, sir. It is my mother and the moving. I must see to that first.”
“Oh, they ’re coming, are they?” The hand on the rail relaxed.
The president stepped back to the platform. He made an impatient gesture to the engineer and turned to the boy. “How long do you want?” It was the old, sharp tone.
But the boy smiled, looking at him with shining eyes. “We might walk up and down,” he suggested.
“Oh, walk--if you want to!” growled Simeon. He fell into a quick trot, matching the boy’s stride.
“Things are bad down there!” He jerked out the words. “Damn fool work!”
“And the fault’s here.” He nodded toward the maze of tracks that stretched away in the dark.
“Old fool!” retorted the other. “Must have been asleep--drunk!”
“I don’t think he drinks,” said the boy quietly. “The hours are long--he ’s old--he may have dropped off.”
“He ’ll drop off now,” said the other grimly, “--way off--How long will it take--this moving business?”
The boy waited a minute. “I want to come now, sir, right off--tomorrow. But my mother is not well--You see we must wait for the right day, and there is the house to look out for and my father--”
“Don’t you know I need you?” said Simeon gruffly.
The hoy looked at him again. It was plain, even in the obscure light, that the man was driven.... He had never seen him like this; and he thought rapidly. The engine had ceased its puffs, but he felt the great throbbing power waiting there behind it. His blood thrilled to it, drifting in his veins. To be off with this man--shaping the course of a world! They had come to the end of the platform and he stopped, wiping away the great drops that had gathered on his forehead.