Latest / The Boy Scout Book of Campfire Stories / Chapter 10: The Night Operator, part 1 by Frank L Packard

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Chapter 10: The Night Operator, part 1 by Frank L Packard · The Boy Scout Book of Campfire Stories

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Kurt Trotweine, The Boy
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  Speaker 1: Scout's Book of Kempfire Stories, Chapter ten, The Night Operator,
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  Speaker 1: Part one by Frank L. Packard. Tottles in the beginning
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  Speaker 1: wasn't exactly a railroad man for several reasons. First, he
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't a man at all. Second, he wasn't strictly speaking
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  Speaker 1: on the company's payroll. Third, which is apparently irrelevant, everybody
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  Speaker 1: said he was a bad one. And fourth because Hawkeye
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  Speaker 1: nicknamed him Tottles. Tottles had another name, Christopher heislop Hoogen,
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  Speaker 1: but may Cloud never lay out wakened nights, losing any
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  Speaker 1: sleep over that on the first run that Christopher slap
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  Speaker 1: Hoogan ever made. Hawkeye looked him over for a minute,
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  Speaker 1: said Tottles short like and short like. That settled the matter.
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  Speaker 1: As far as Hill Division was concerned, his name was Tottles. Piecemeal.
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  Speaker 1: Tottles wouldn't convey anything to you. To speak of, you'd
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  Speaker 1: have to see Tottles coming down the aisle of a
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  Speaker 1: car to get him at all, and then the chances
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  Speaker 1: are you'd turn around after he had gone by and
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  Speaker 1: stare at him, and it would be even money that
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  Speaker 1: you'd call him back and fish for a dime to
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  Speaker 1: buy something by way of excuse. Tuttles got a good
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  Speaker 1: deal of business that way. Tuttles had a uniform and
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  Speaker 1: a regular run, all right, but he wasn't what he
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  Speaker 1: passionately longed to be a legitimate died in the wool railroader.
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  Speaker 1: His paycheck plus commissions came from the news company down
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  Speaker 1: east that had the railroad concession. Tottles was a newsboy.
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  Speaker 1: In his blue uniform and silver buttons, Tottles used to
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  Speaker 1: stack up about the height of the back of the
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  Speaker 1: car seats as he hawked his wares along the aisles.
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  Speaker 1: The only thing that was big about him was his head,
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  Speaker 1: which looked as though it had gotten a whopping big
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  Speaker 1: lead on his body and didn't intend to let the
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  Speaker 1: body cut the lead down any This meant a big cap,
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  Speaker 1: and as Tuttles used to tilt the visor ford, the
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  Speaker 1: tip of his nose bar his mouth, which was generous,
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  Speaker 1: was about all one got of his face, cap, buttons, magazines,
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  Speaker 1: and peanuts. That was Tottles. I'll accept his voice. Tuttles
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  Speaker 1: had a voice that would make you jump if you
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  Speaker 1: were nervous the minute he opened the car door, and
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  Speaker 1: if you weren't nervous, you would be before he reached
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  Speaker 1: the other end of the aisle. It began low down
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  Speaker 1: somewhere on a high g and went through you shrill
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  Speaker 1: as an east wind, and ended like the shriek of
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  Speaker 1: a brake shoe with everything the Westinghouse equipment had to offer,
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  Speaker 1: cutting loose on a quick stop. Hawkey that's what Tuttles
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  Speaker 1: called his beady eyed conductor and retaliation. Hawkeye used to
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  Speaker 1: nag Tuttles every chance he got, and being Tottle's conductor,
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  Speaker 1: Hawkeye got a good many chances. In a word, Hawkeye
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  Speaker 1: carrying the punch on the local passenger that happened to
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  Speaker 1: be on a run Tottles was given when the news
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  Speaker 1: companies sent him out from the East, used to think
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  Speaker 1: he got a good deal of fun out of Tottles.
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  Speaker 1: Only his idea of fun and Tottle's idea of fun
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  Speaker 1: were as divergent as the poles. That was all Tottles however,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't anybody's full, not by several degrees, not even Hawkeyes.
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  Speaker 1: Tottles hated Hawkeye like poison, and his hate, apart from
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  Speaker 1: daily annoyances, was deep seated. It was Hawkeye who had
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  Speaker 1: dubbed him Tottles, and Tottles repudiated the name with his heart,
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  Speaker 1: his soul, and his fists. Tottles wasn't anybody's full, whatever
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  Speaker 1: the division thought, and he was right down to the
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  Speaker 1: basic root of things from the start, coupled with the
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  Speaker 1: stunted growth that nature, in a miserly mood, had doled
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  Speaker 1: out to him. None knew better than himself that the
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  Speaker 1: name of Tottles, keeping that nature stuff patently before everybody's eyes,
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  Speaker 1: damned him. In his aspirations for a bona fide railroad career.
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  Speaker 1: Other boys got a job and got their feet on
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  Speaker 1: the ladder as call boys or in the roadhouse, Tottles
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  Speaker 1: got a grin. Tottles pestered everybody for a job. He
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  Speaker 1: pestered Carlton the super he pestered Tommy Reagan, the master mechanic.
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  Speaker 1: Every time that he saw anybody in authority, Tottles spoke
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  Speaker 1: up for a job. He was in deadly earnest and
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  Speaker 1: got a grin Tuttles with a basket of unripe fruit
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  Speaker 1: and stale chocolates, and his best seller voice was one thing.
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  Speaker 1: But Tottles as anything else was just Tottles. Turtles reputated
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  Speaker 1: the name and did it forcefully, not that he couldn't
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  Speaker 1: take his share of a bit of guying, but because
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  Speaker 1: he felt he was face to face with a vital
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  Speaker 1: factor in the career he longed for, so he fought.
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  Speaker 1: And if nature had been niggardly in one respect, she
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  Speaker 1: had been generous in others. Tottles, for all his size,
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  Speaker 1: possessed the heart of a lion and the strength of
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  Speaker 1: a young ox, and he used both with black and
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  Speaker 1: bloody effect on the eyes and noses of the callboys
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  Speaker 1: and younger element who called him Tottles. He fought it
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  Speaker 1: all along the line, at the drop of a hat,
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  Speaker 1: at a whisper of Tottles. There wasn't a day went
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  Speaker 1: by that Tottles wasn't in a row. And the women,
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  Speaker 1: the mothers of the defeated warriors, whose eyes were puffed
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  Speaker 1: and whose noses trickled crimson, denounced him in virulent language
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  Speaker 1: over their washtubs, and the back fences of Big Cloud.
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  Speaker 1: You see, they didn't understand him, so they called him
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  Speaker 1: a bad one, and being from the east and not
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  Speaker 1: one of themselves, a New York gutter snipe. But for
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  Speaker 1: all that, the name stuck up and down through the rockies.
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  Speaker 1: It was Tottles. Tottles, with the idea of getting a
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  Speaker 1: layover on a siding, even went to the extent of
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  Speaker 1: signing himself in full Christopher Heiesop Hoogan every time his
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  Speaker 1: signature was in order. But the official documents in which
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  Speaker 1: he was concerned, being of a private nature between himself
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  Speaker 1: and the news company, did not, in the very nature
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  Speaker 1: of things, have much effect on the Hill division. Certainly,
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  Speaker 1: the big fellows never knew he had any name but Tottles,
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  Speaker 1: and cared less. But they knew him as Tottles, all right,
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  Speaker 1: all of them did, every last one of them. Tottles
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  Speaker 1: was everlastingly and eternally bothering them for a job, any
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  Speaker 1: kind of job, no matter what, just so it was
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  Speaker 1: real railroading, and so a fellow could line up with
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  Speaker 1: everybody else when the pay car came along and look
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  Speaker 1: forward to being something someday. Tuttles, with time, of course,
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  Speaker 1: grew older, up to about seventeen or so, but he
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  Speaker 1: didn't grow any bigger, not enough to make it noticeable.
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  Speaker 1: Even Tottles's voice wouldn't break. It was his young heart
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  Speaker 1: that did all the breaking there was done, not that
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  Speaker 1: he ever showed it. No one ever saw a tear
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  Speaker 1: in the boy's eyes. It was clenched fists for Tottles,
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  Speaker 1: clenched fists and passionate attack. And therein, while Tottles had
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  Speaker 1: grasped the basic truth that his nickname militated against his ambitions,
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  Speaker 1: he aired in an another direction that was equally fundamental,
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  Speaker 1: if not more so. And here it was Bob Duncan,
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  Speaker 1: the night dispatcher, as white a man, as his record
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  Speaker 1: after years of train handling was white a railroad man
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  Speaker 1: from the ground up, if there ever was one, and
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  Speaker 1: one of the best who set Tuttles. But will come
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  Speaker 1: to that presently. We've got our clearance now, and we're
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  Speaker 1: off with rights through number eighty three Hawkeyes train and
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  Speaker 1: Tottles' scheduled Big Cloud on the eastbound run at nine
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  Speaker 1: oh five and on the night the story opens, they
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  Speaker 1: were about an hour away from the little mountain town
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  Speaker 1: that was the divisional point as Tottles his basket of
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  Speaker 1: edibles in the crook of his arm, halted in the
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  Speaker 1: forward end of the second class smoker to examine again
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  Speaker 1: a fistful of change that he dug out of his
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  Speaker 1: pants pocket with his free hand. Tuttles was in an
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  Speaker 1: unusually bad humor, and he scowled with exceeding deafness. He
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  Speaker 1: separated one of the coins from the others, using his
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  Speaker 1: fingers like the teeth of a rake, and dropped the
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  Speaker 1: rest back, jingling, into his pocket. The coin that remained
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  Speaker 1: he put into his mouth and bit on it hard.
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  Speaker 1: His scowl deepened. Somebody had presented Tottles with a lead quarter.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't so much the quarter, though. Tuttles's salary wasn't
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  Speaker 1: so big as some people's who would have felt worse
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  Speaker 1: over it. It was his armor propra that was touched deeply.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't often that anyone could put so bald a
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  Speaker 1: thing as led money across on Tottles. Tottles's mind harked
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  Speaker 1: back along the aisles of the cars behind him. He
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  Speaker 1: had only made two sales that round, and he had
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  Speaker 1: changed a quarter each time for the pretty girl with
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  Speaker 1: a big picture hat who had giggled at him when
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  Speaker 1: she bought a package of chewing gum, and the man
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  Speaker 1: with a three carried diamond tie pin in the parlor
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  Speaker 1: car a little more than on the edge of intebriety,
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  Speaker 1: who had got on at the last stop, and who
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  Speaker 1: bought a cigar from him. Turtles sotted over for a bit,
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  Speaker 1: decided he wouldn't have a fuss with a girl anyway,
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  Speaker 1: balked at a parlor car fracas with a drunk, dropped
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  Speaker 1: the coin back into his pocket, and went into the
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  Speaker 1: combination baggage and express car. Here just inside the door
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  Speaker 1: was Tottles's, or rather the news Company's chest. Turtles lifted
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  Speaker 1: the lid and then his eyes shifted slowly and traveled
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  Speaker 1: up the car. Things were certainly going badly with Tottles
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  Speaker 1: that night. There were four men in the car. Bob
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  Speaker 1: Duncan coming back from a holiday trip somewhere up the line. McNichol,
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  Speaker 1: the baggage master, Nalty the express messenger, and Hawkeye. Tuttles's
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  Speaker 1: inventory of the contents of the chest had been hurried
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  Speaker 1: but intimate. A small bunch of six bananas was gone,
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  Speaker 1: and Hawkeye was munching them unconcernedly. It wasn't the first
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  Speaker 1: time the big, hulking six foot conductor had pilfered the
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  Speaker 1: boy's chest, not by many, and never paid for the pilfering.
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  Speaker 1: That was Hawkeye's idea of a joke. Hawkeye was talking
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  Speaker 1: to Nalty, elaborately simulating ignorance of Tottles's presence, and he
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  Speaker 1: was talking about Tottles. Sure, said Hawkeye, his mouth full
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  Speaker 1: of banana. He'll be a great railroad man someday. He's
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  Speaker 1: the stuff they're made of. You can see it sticking
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  Speaker 1: out all over him. He's only selling peanuts now until
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  Speaker 1: he grows up and Tuttles put down his basket and
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  Speaker 1: planting himself before the conductor. You pay for those bananas,
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  Speaker 1: said Tottles in a low voice, which was high. When
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  Speaker 1: will he grow up? Continued Hawkeye, peeling more fruit. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know you got me. First time I saw him
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: two years ago. I'm hanged if he wasn't bigger than
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: he is now. Guess he grows backwards. Have a banana.
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  Speaker 1: He offered one to Nulty, who refused it. You pay
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  Speaker 1: for those bananas, you big stiff, squealed Tottles belligerently. Hawkeye
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  Speaker 1: turned his head slowly and turned his little beady black
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  Speaker 1: eyes on Tottles. Then he turned with a wing to
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  Speaker 1: the others, and for the first time in two years,
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  Speaker 1: offered payment. He fished into his pocket and handed Tottles
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  Speaker 1: a twenty dollars bill. There was always a mean streak
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  Speaker 1: in Hawkeye, more or less of a bully, none too
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: well liked, and whose name on the payroll, by the way,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: was Reynolds. Take fifteen cents out of that, he said,
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  Speaker 1: with no idea that the boy could change the bill.
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  Speaker 1: For a moment, Tottles glared at the yellowback. Then a
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  Speaker 1: thrill of an holy glee came to Tottles. He could
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  Speaker 1: just about make it. Business all around had been pretty
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  Speaker 1: good that day, particularly on the run west in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: Hawkeye went on with the exposition of his idea of
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  Speaker 1: humor at Tottle's expense, and Tittles went back to his
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  Speaker 1: chest and his reserve funds. Toddles counted out eighteen dollars
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  Speaker 1: in bills, made a neat pile of four quarters, the
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  Speaker 1: lead one on the bottom another neat pile of odd change,
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  Speaker 1: and returned to Hawkeye. The lead quarter wouldn't go very
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: far toward liquidating Hawkeye's long standing in debtness. But it
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  Speaker 1: would help some queer, isn't it the way things happen?
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  Speaker 1: Think of a man's whole life, aspirations, hopes, ambitions, everything
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  Speaker 1: pivoting on a lead quarter. But then they say that
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: opportunity knocks once at the door of every man. And
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: if that be true, let it be remarked in passing
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: that Tottles wasn't death Hawkeye, making Tottles a target for
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  Speaker 1: his parting Gibe, took up his lantern and started through
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  Speaker 1: the train to pick up the fates from the last stop.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: In due course, he halted before the inebriated one with
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a glittering tie pin in the smoking compartment of the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: parlor car. Ticket, please, said Hawkeye, Too busy to bash ticket,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the man informed him with heavy confidence. Wash fair loun
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: dam to big Cloud one fifty, said Hawkeye curtly. The
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: man produced a roll of bills and from the roll
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: extracted a two dollars note. Hawkeye handed him back two
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: quarters and started to punch the cash fare slip. He
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: looked up to find the man holding out one of
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the quarters insistently, if somewhat unsteadily. What's the matter, demanded
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Hawkeye brusquely, bad said the man. A drummer grinned, and
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  Speaker 1: an elderly gentleman from his magazine looked up inquiringly over
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: his spectacles. Bad Hawkeye brought his elbows sharply around to
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: focus his lamp on the coin. Then he leaned over
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: and rang it on the window seal. Only it wouldn't ring.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It was indubitably bad. Hawkeye, however, was dealing with a
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: drunk and Hawkeye always did have a mean streak in him.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: It's perfectly good, he asserted gruffly. The man rolled an
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: eye at the conductor that mingled a sudden shrewdness and anger,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: and appealed to his fellow travelers. The verdict was against Hawkeye,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: and Hawkeye ungraciously pocketed the lead piece and handed over
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: another quarter. Shay observed the inebriated one insolently. Shay, Conductor,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I don't like you. You thought I was drunk. I
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: wouldn't know. Eh, that's where you fooled yourself. What do
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you mean? Hawkeye bridled virtuously for the benefit of the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: drummer and the old gentleman with the spectacles, and then
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the other began to laugh. Immoderately, same old quarter, said
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: he saying, old quarter back again. Great system. Peanut boy,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: conductor pass it off on one other, passes it off
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: on someone else. Just passed it off on peanut boy
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: for a joke. Going to give him a dollar when
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: he comes back. Oh you did, did, you, snapped Hawkeye ominously.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And you mean to insinuate that I deliberately tried to sure,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: declared the man heartily. You're a liar, announced Hawkeye, spluttering mad.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And what's more, since it came from you, you'll take
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: it back. He dug into his pocket for the ubiquitous
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: lead piece. Not on your life, said the man earnestly.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: You hang on to it, old top I di him
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: pass it off on you. Ha, exploded the drummer suddenly,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: hah ha ha, and the elderly gentleman smiled. Hawkeye's face
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: went red and then purple. Go away, said the man petulantly.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I don't like you. Go away, Go and tell Panizza
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: got a dollar for him, and Hawkeye went, but Tottles
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: never got the dollar. Hawkeye went out of the smoking
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: compartment of the parlor car with the lead quarter in
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: his pocket. Because he couldn't do anything else, which didn't
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: soothe his feelings any and he went out, mad enough
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: to bite himself. The drummer's guffaw followed him, and he
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: thought he even caught a chuckle from the elderly party
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: with a magazine and the spectacles. Hawkeye was mad, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: he was quite well aware, painfully well aware, that he
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: had looked like a fool, which is about one of
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the meanest feelings there is to feel. And as he
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: made his way forward through the train he grew madder still.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: That change was the change from his twenty dollars bill.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: He had not needed to be told that the lead
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: quarter had come from Tottles. The only question at all
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: in doubt was whether or not Tottles had put the
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: counterfeit coin over on him knowingly and with malice a forethought. Hawkeye, however,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: had an intuition deep down inside him that there wasn't
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: any doubt even about that, and as he opened the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: door to the baggage car, his intuition was vindicated. There
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: was a grin on the faces of Nelty McNichol and
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Bob Donkin that disappeared with suspicious celerity at the sight
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: of him. When he came through the door. There was
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: no hesitation then on Hawkeye's part. Tottle's equipped for another
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: excursion through the train with a stack of magazines and
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: books that almost hit him, received a sudden and vicious
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: clout on the side of the year. You tried your
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: tricks on me, would you? Hawkeye snarled, led quarters Eh,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: another clout, I'll teach you, you blasted little runt, And
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: with the clouds the stack of carefully balanced periodicals went
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: flying over the floor. And with the clouts, the nagging
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: and the hectoring and the bullying that had wrinkled for
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: close on two years, and Tottle's turbulent soul rose in
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: a sudden, all possessing sweep of fury. Tottles was a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: fighter with the heart of a fighter, and Tottle's cause
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: was just He couldn't reach the conductor's face, so he
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: went for Hawkeye's legs, and the screams of rage from
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: his high pitched voice as he shot himself forward sounded
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: like a cage full of Australian cockatoos on the rampage.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Turtles was small, pitifully small for his age, but he
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't an infant in arms, not for a minute, and
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in action, Tittles was as near to a wild cat
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: as anything else that comes handy by way of illustration.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Two legs and one arm he twined and twisted around
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Hawkeye's legs, and the other arm, with a hard and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: knotty fist on the end of it, caught the conductor
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a wicked jab in the region of the bottom button
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: of the vest. The brass button peeled the skin off
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Tottle's knuckles, but the jab doubled the conductor forward and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: coincident with Hawkeye's wind a gut, the lantern in his
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: hand sailed ceilingwards, crashed into the center lamps in the
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: roof of the car, and down, in a shower of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: tinkling glass, dripping oil, and burning wicks, came the wreckage
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: to the floor. There was a yell from Nulty, but
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Tottles hung on like grim death. Hawkeye was bawling fluent
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: profanity and seeing red. Tttles heard one and since the other,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and he clung grimly on. He was all doubled up
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: around Hawkeye's knees, and in that position Hawkeye couldn't get
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: at him very well. And besides, Tottle had his own
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: planet battle he was waiting for an extra heavy lurch
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: of the car. It came. Tuttles's muscles, strained legs and
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: arms back in concert, and for an instant across the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: car they tottered Hawkeye staggering in a desperate attempt to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: maintain his equilibrium, and then down, speaking generally on a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: heterogeneous pile of express parcels, concretely with an eloquent scunch
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: on a crate of eggs, thirty dozen of them at
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: forty cents a dozen. Tottles, over his rage, experienced a
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: sickening sense of disaster, but still he clung. He didn't
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: dare let go Hawkeye's fists, both in an effort to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: recover himself and in an endeavor to reach Turtles were
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: going like a windmill, and Hawkeye's threats were something terrifying
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to listen to. And now they rolled over and Tottles
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: was underneath. And then they rolled over again, and then
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a hand locked on Tottle's collar, and he was yanked terrier,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: fashioned to his feet, his face white and determined, his
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: fists doubled. Turtles waited for Hawkeye to get up. The
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: word run wasn't in Tottles's vocabulary. He hadn't long to wait.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Hawkeye lunged up, draped in the broken crate a sight.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: The road always prided itself on the natty uniforms of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: its train crews, but Hawkeye wasn't dressed in uniformed them
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: mostly egg yolks. He made a dash for Tottles, but
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: he never reached the boy. Bob Duncan was between them.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Cut it out, said Duncan coldly, as he pushed Tottles
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: behind him. You asked for it, Reynolds, and you got
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: it now. Cut it out, and Hawkeye cut it out.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: It was pretty generally understood that Bob Donkin never talked
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: much for show, and Bob Duncan was bigger than Tottles,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a whole lot bigger, as big as Hawkeye himself. Hawkeye
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: cut it out. Funny, the egg part of it well, perhaps,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: but the fire wasn't true. They got it out with
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the help of the hand extinguishers before it did any
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: serious damage, for Nulty had gone at it on the jump.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: But while it lasted, the burning oil on the car
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: floor looked dangerous anyway. It was bad enough so that
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: they couldn't hide it when they got into Big Cloud
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: and Hawkeye and Tottles went on the carpet for it.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The next morning, in the Super's office, Carlton, Royal Carlton
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: reached for a match, and to keep his lips straight,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: clamped them firmly on the amber mouthpiece of his brier
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and stumpy, big paunch. Tommy Reagan, the master mechanic, who
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: was sitting in a chair by the window, reached hurriedly
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: into his back pocket for his chewing and looked out
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the window to hide a grin as the two came
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: in and ranged themselves in front of the super's desk.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Hawkeye six feet and one hundred and ninety pounds, with
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Tottles trailing him, mostly cap and buttons and no weight
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: at all. Carlton didn't ask many questions. He'd asked them
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: before Bob Duncan, and the dispatcher hadn't gone out of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: his way to invest the conductor with any glorified halo. Carlton,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: always a strict disciplinarian, said what he had to say,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: and said it quietly. But he meant to let the
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: conductor have the worst of it, and he did in
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: a way that was all Carlton's own. Two years picking
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: on a youngster didn't appeal to Carlton, no matter who
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the youngster was. Before he was half through, he had
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: the big conductor squirming. Hawkeye was looking for something else
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: besides a galling and matter of fact impartiality that accepted
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: himself in Tuddles as being on exactly the same plane
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and level. There's a case of eggs, said Carlton at
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the end. You can divide the damage between you and
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to change your runs unless you've got some
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: good reason to give me why I shouldn't. He waited
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: for an answer. Hawkeye, towering sullen, his eyes resting bitterly
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: on Reagan, having caught the master mechanics grin, said nothing. Tottles,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: whose head barely showed over the top of Carlton's desk
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: and the whole of him sizing up about big enough
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: to go into the Conductor's pocket, was equally silent. Tottles
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: was thinking of something else. Very good, said Carlton swaftly,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: as he surveyed the ridiculous incongruity before him. I'll change
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: your runs. Then. I can't have you two men brawling
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and prize fighting every trip. There was a sudden sound
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: from the window, as though Reagan had got some of
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: his black strap jews down the wrong way. Hawkeye's face
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: went black as thunder. Carlton's face was like a sphinx.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: That'll do. Then he said, you can go, both of you.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Hawkeye stamped out of the room and down the stairs.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: But Tottles state, please, mister Carlton, won't you give me
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: a job? On Tottle stopped, so had Reagan's chuckle. Tottles,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the irrepressible was at it again, and Tottles after a job,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: any kind of job, was something that Reagan's experience had
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: taught him to fly from without standing. On the order
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of his flight. Reagan hurt from the room. Tottles watched
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: him go kind of speculatively, kind of reproachfully. Then he
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: turned to Carlton. Please give me a job, mister Carlton,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: he pleaded, give me a job, won't you. It was
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: only yesterday on the platform that turtles waylaid the super
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: with the same demand, and about every day before that,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: as far back as Carlton could remember, it was hopelessly chronic.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: Anything convincing or appealing about it had gone long ago.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Tottles said at parrot fashion now Carlton took refuge and severity.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: See here, young man, he said grimly, you were brought
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: into this office for a reprimand, and not to apply
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: for a job. You can thank your stars and Bob Duncan.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: You haven't lost the one you've got. Now get out
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: to make good if you gave me one, said Tottles, earnestly. Honest,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: I would, mister Carlton, get out, said the Super, not
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: altogether Unkindly, I'm busy. Tottles swallowed a lump in his throat,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: but not until his head was turned and he started
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: for the door so the Super wouldn't see it. Tottles
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: swallowed the lump and got out. He hadn't expected anything else.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, the refusals were just as chronic as the demands,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: but that didn't make each new one any easier for Tottles.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: It made it worse. Tottles's heart was heavy as he
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: stepped out into the hall, and the iron was in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: his soul. He was seventeen now, and it looked as
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: though he never would get a chance except to be
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: a newsboy all his life. Tottles swallowed another lump. He
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: loved railroading. It was his one ambition, his one desire.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: If he could ever get a chance, he'd show him.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: He'd show them that he wasn't a joke just because
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: he was small. Turtles turned at the head of the
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: stairs to go down when somebody called his name. Here,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Turtles come here. Turtles looked over his shoulder, hesitated, then
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: marched in through the open door of the dispatcher's room.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Bob Duncan was alone there. What's your name, Tottles inquired
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Duncan as Turtles halted before the spatcher's table. End of
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, Part one, read by Kurt Trotwine