The elderly woman went off with a smile, but returned quickly with an anxious look, and bade the man follow her. He was ushered into a small and poorly furnished but extremely neat and clean parlour, where sat a thin little old lady in an easy-chair, looking very pale.

"Ev'nin', ma'am," said John, bowing and looking rougher and bigger than usual in such a small apartment.

"You--you--don't bring bad news, I hope!--my son Joseph--"

"Oh no, Mrs Tipps, not by no means," said Marrot, hasting to relieve the timid old lady's feelings, "Mr Joseph is all right--nothing wotiver wrong with him--nor likely to be, ma'am. Leastwise he wos all right w'en I seed 'im last."

"And when might that be?" asked the timid old lady with a sigh of relief as she clasped her hands tightly together.

"W'y, let me see," said John, touching his forehead, "it was yesterday evenin' w'en I came up with the northern express."

"But many accidents might have happened since yesterday evening," said Mrs Tipps, still in an anxious tone.

"That's true, ma'am. All the engines on the Grand Trunk from the Pentland Firth to the Channel might have bu'sted their bilers since that time--but it ain't likely," replied John, with a bland smile.

"And--and what was my son doing when you pa.s.sed him? Did you speak to him?"

"Speak to him! Bless your heart, ma'am," said John, with another benignant smile, "I went past Langrye station at sixty mile an hour, so we hadn't much chance to speak to each other. It would have been as much as we could have managed, if we'd tried it, to exchange winks."

"Dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps in a low tone. "Is that the usual rate of travelling on your railway?"

"Oh dear no, ma'am. It's only _my_ express train as goes at that rate.

Other expresses run between forty and fifty miles, an' or'nary trains average about thirty miles an hour--goods, they go at about twenty, more or less; but they varies a good deal. The train I drives is about the fastest in the kingdom, w'ich is pretty much the same as sayin' it's the fastest in the world, ma'am. Sometimes I'm obleeged to go as high as nigh seventy miles an hour to make up time."

"The fastest mail-coaches in _my_ young days," said Mrs Tipps, "used to go at the rate of ten miles an hour, I believe."

"Pretty much so," said John. "They did manage a mile or two more, I'm told, but that was their average of crawlin' with full steam on."

"And _you_ sometimes drive at sixty or seventy miles an hour?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"With people in the carriages?"

"Cer'nly, ma'am."

"How I _wish_ that I had lived a hundred years ago!" sighed poor Mrs Tipps.

"You'd have bin a pretty old girl by this time if you had," thought the engine-driver, but he was too polite to give utterance to the thought.

"And what was my son doing when you pa.s.sed him at that frightful speed-- you could _see_ him, I suppose?"

"Oh yes, ma'am, I could see him well enough. He was talkin' an'

laughin', as far as I could make out, with an uncommon pretty girl."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps, flushing slightly--for she was extremely sensitive,--and evidently much relieved by this information. "Well, my good man, what do you wish me to do for you? anything that is in my power to--"

"Thankee, ma'am, but I don't want you to do nothin' for _me_."

"Then what have you to say to me?" added the old lady with a little smile that was clearly indicative of a kind little heart.

"I've come to take the liberty, ma'am, of askin' you to do one of my mates a favour."

"Most willingly," said Mrs Tipps with animation. "I shall never forget that you saved my dear Joseph's life by pulling him off the line when one of your dreadful engines was going straight over him. Anything that I am capable of doing for you or your friends will be but a poor return for what you have done for me. I have often asked you to allow me to make me some such return, Mr Marrot, and have been grieved at your constant refusal. I am delighted that you come to me now."

"You're very good to say so, ma'am. The fact is that one o' my friends, a porter on the line, named Sam Natly, has a young wife who is, I fear, far gone wi' consumption; she's worse to-night an' poor Sam's obliged to go on night dooty, so he can't look arter her, an' the old 'ooman they've got ain't worth nothin'. So I thought I'd make bold, ma'am, to ask you to send yer servant to git a proper nurse to take charge of her to-night, it would be--"

"I'll go myself!" exclaimed Mrs Tipps, interrupting, and starting up with a degree of alacrity that astonished the engine-driver. "Here, write down the address on that piece of paper--you can write, I suppose?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied John, modestly, as he bent down and wrote the address in a bold flowing hand, "I raither think I _can_ write. I write notes, on a paper I've got to fill up daily, on the engine; an' w'en a man's trained to do that, ma'am, it's my opinion he's fit to write in any circ.u.mstances whatsomedever. Why, you'd hardly believe it, ma'am, but I do a.s.sure you, that I wrote my fust an' last love-letter to my missus on the engine. I was drivin' the Lightenin' at the time--that's the name o' my engine, ma'am, an' they calls me Jack Blazes in consikence--well, I'd bin courtin' Molly, off-an'-on, for about three months. She b'longed to Pinchley station, you must know, where we used to stop to give her a drink--"

"What! to give Molly a drink?"

"No, ma'am," replied John, with a slight smile, "to give the ingine a drink. Well, she met me nigh every day 'xcept Sundays at that station, and as we'd a pretty long time there--about five minutes--we used to spend it beside the pump, an' made the most of it. But somehow I took it into my head that Molly was playin' fast an' loose with me, an' I was raither cool on her for a time. Hows'ever, her father bein' a pointsman, she wos shifted along with him to Langrye station--that's where your son is, ma'am--an' as we don't stop there we was obleeged to confine our courtship to a nod an' a wave of a handkerchief. Leastwise she shook out a white handkerchief an' I flourished a lump o'

cotton-waste. Well, one day as we was close upon Langrye station--about two miles--I suddenly takes it into my head that I'd bring the thing to a pint, so I sings out to my mate--that was my fireman, ma'am--says I, `look out Jim,' an' I draws out my pencil an' bends my legs--you must always bend your legs a little, ma'am, w'en you writes on a locomotive, it makes springs of 'em, so to speak--an' I writes on the back of a blank time-bill, `Molly, my dear, no more shilly-shallyin' with _me_.

Time's up. If you'll be tender, I'll be locomotive. Only say the word and we're coupled for life in three weeks. A white handkerchief means yes, a red 'un, no. If red, you'll see a noo driver on the 10:15 a.m.

express day after to-morrow. John Marrot.' I was just in time to pitch the paper crumpled up right into her bosom," continued the driver, wiping his forehead as if the deep anxiety of that eventful period still affected him, "an' let me tell you, ma'am, it requires a deal o' nice calculation to pitch a piece o' crumpled paper true off a locomotive goin' between fifty and sixty miles an hour; but it went all straight--I could see that before we was gone."

"And what was the result?" asked the little old lady as earnestly as if that result were still pending.

"W'y, the result wos as it should be! My letter was a short 'un, but it turned out to be a powerful brake. Brought her up sharp--an' we was coupled in less than six weeks."

"Amazing phase of human life!" observed Mrs Tipps, gazing in admiration at the stalwart giant who stood deferentially before her.

"Well, it _was_ a raither coorious kind o' proposal," said Marrot with a smile, "but it worked uncommon well. I've never wanted to uncouple since then."

"Pardon _me_, Mr Marrot," said Mrs Tipps, with little hysterical laugh--knowing that she was about to perpetrate a joke--"may I ask if there are any--any _little_ tenders?"

"Oh, lots of 'em," replied John, "quite a train of 'em; four livin' an'

three gone dead. The last was coupled on only a short time ago. You'll excuse me now, ma'am," he added, pulling out and consulting the ponderous chronometer with which the company supplied him, "I must go now, havin' to take charge o' the 6:30 p.m. train,--it ain't my usual train, but I'm obleeged to take it to-night owin' to one of our drivers havin' come by an accident. Evenin', ma'am."

John bowed, and retired so promptly that poor Mrs Tipps had no time to make further inquiry into the accident referred to--at the very mention of which her former alarm came back in full force. However, she wisely got the better of her own anxieties by throwing herself into those of others. Putting on her bonnet she sallied forth on her errand of mercy.

Meanwhile John Marrot proceeded to the engine-shed to prepare his iron horse for action. Here he found that his fireman, Will Garvie, and his cleaner, had been attending faithfully to their duty. The huge locomotive, which looked all the more gigantic for being under cover, was already quivering with that tremendous energy--that artificial life--which rendered it at once so useful and so powerful a servant of man. Its bra.s.ses shone with golden l.u.s.tre, its iron rods and bars, cranks and pistons glittered with silvery sheen, and its heavier parts and body were gay with a new coat of green paint. Every nut and screw and lever and joint had been screwed up, and oiled, examined, tested, and otherwise attended to, while the oblong pit over which it stood when in the shed--and into which its ashes were periodically emptied--glowed with the light of its intense furnace. Ever and anon a little puff issued from its safety-valve, proving to John Marrot that there was life within his fiery steed sufficient to have blown the shed to wreck with all its brother engines, of which there were at the time two or three dozen standing--some disgorging their fire and water after a journey, and preparing to rest for the night; some letting off steam with a fiendish yell unbearably prolonged; others undergoing trifling repairs preparatory to starting next day, and a few, like that of our engine-driver, ready for instant action and snorting with impatience like war-horses "scenting the battle from afar." The begrimed warriors, whose destiny it was to ride these iron chargers, were also variously circ.u.mstanced. Some in their shirt sleeves busy with hammer and file at benches hard by; others raking out fire-boxes, or oiling machinery; all busy as bees, save the few, who, having completed their preparations, were b.u.t.toning up their jackets and awaiting the signal to charge.

At last that signal came to John Marrot--not in a loud shout of command or a trumpet-blast, but by the silent hand of Time, as indicated on his chronometer.

"But how," it may be asked, "does John Marrot know precisely the hour at which he has to start, the stations he has to stop at, the various little acts of coupling on and dropping off carriages and trucks, and returning with trains or with `empties' within fixed periods so punctually, that he shall not interfere with, run into, or delay, the operations of the hundreds of drivers whose duties are as complex, nice, important, and swift as his own."

Reader, we reply that John knows it all in consequence of the perfection of _system_ attained in railway management. Without this, our trains and rails all over the kingdom would long ago have been smashed up into what Irishmen expressively name smithereens.

The duty of arranging the details of the system devolves on the superintendents of departments on the line, namely, the pa.s.senger, goods, and locomotive superintendents, each of whom reigns independently and supreme in his own department, but of course, like the members of a well-ordered family, they have to consult together in order that their trains may be properly horsed, and the time of running so arranged that there shall be no clashing in their distinct though united interests.

When the number of trains and time of running have been fixed, and finally published by the pa.s.senger superintendent--who is also sometimes the "Out-door superintendent," and who has duties to perform that demand very considerable powers of generalship,--it is the duty of the locomotive superintendent to supply the requisite engines. This officer, besides caring for all the "plant" or rolling-stock, new and old, draws out periodically a schedule, in which is detailed to a nicety every minute act that has to be done by drivers--the hour at which each engine is to leave the shed on each day of the week, the number of each engine, its driver and fireman, and the duties to be performed; and this sheet contains complete _daily_ (nay, almost hourly) directions for pa.s.senger, goods, and pilot-engines.

In order to secure attention to these regulations, each engineman is fined one shilling for every minute he is behind time in leaving the shed. The difficulty of making these runnings of trains dovetail into each other on lines where the traffic is great and constant, may well be understood to be considerable, particularly when it is remembered that ordinary regular traffic is interfered with constantly by numerous excursion, special, and other irregular trains, in the midst of which, also, time must be provided for the repair and renewal of the line itself, the turning of old rails, laying down of new ones, raising depressed sleepers, renewing broken chairs, etcetera,--all which is constantly going on, and that, too, at parts of the line over which hundreds of trains pa.s.s in the course of the twenty-four hours.

Besides the arrangements for the regular traffic, which are made monthly, a printed sheet detailing the special traffic, repairs of lines, new and altered signals, working arrangements, etcetera, is issued weekly to every member of the staff; particularly to engine-drivers and guards. We chance to possess one of these private sheets, issued by one of our princ.i.p.al railways. Let us peep behind the scenes for a moment and observe how such matters are managed.

The vacation has come to an end, and the boys of Rapscallion College will, on a certain day, pour down on the railway in shoals with money in hand and a confident demand for accommodation. This invading army must be prepared for. Ordinary trains are not sufficient for it. Delay is dangerous on railways; it must not be permitted; therefore the watchful superintendent writes an order which we find recorded as follows:--