“We have hardly five minutes to spare now, and the slightest accident might cause us to miss our connections.” “But with me the battle is to make the time to Ucayga inside of an hour. If it is more than an hour, it will sound bad, and we might just as well be an hour and a half as an hour and a quarter. I thought it was done handsomely this trip.” “Perhaps it was, sir; but I was five minutes behind time when we reached Spangleport, and if I had not run at the rate of a mile in a minute and a half we should have missed the trains. Then the child on the track threw me back two minutes more, and compelled me to run the engine at its highest speed. The iron on the track is not heavy enough for such high rates.” “But why were you five minutes late at Spangleport?” asked the major. Should I tell him why? It might endanger my place to bring a charge against Tommy; but I felt myself independent enough to do so. “My fireman did not do his duty. I have been obliged to run the engine and fire too,” I replied, explaining all that Lewis had done. “What, Holgate! Discharge him then, at once,” said the great man, impatiently. “I am afraid that will not be so easy a matter,” I added, with a smile. “I think it will.” “Lewis does not act altogether on his own account, though he wants my place.” “Turn him off. Don’t let him run another trip.” “I am sorry to say, sir, that Tommy is at the bottom of the mischief.” “Tommy?” “Yes, sir.” I told him that Tommy had been working against me since the affair at the Horse Shoe; that he was trying to undermine me. The major was incredulous. Tommy was obstinate, he knew, but the president would not do anything to injure the Lake Shore Railroad. He was willing to believe that Lewis Holgate wished to get me out of my place, but not that his son was a party to the conspiracy. “Lewis left the engine while we were waiting for the boat at Ucayga, and I should not have had steam enough to start the train if I had not shovelled in the coal myself. He did not even oil up, as he should have done, and as I told him to do,” I continued. “Discharge him, then.” “But all this time he was talking with Tommy; and you may be sure that your son will not permit him to be discharged.” Major Toppleton bit his lips. He was beginning to comprehend the situation. He was actually afraid to carry his purpose into execution now, and, as I expected he would when the pinch came, he changed the subject of conversation, and said no more about getting rid of Lewis Holgate. “I think, if we could save the two stops at Spangleport and Grass Springs, I could make the time without difficulty, even if we lost a few moments on the way,” I suggested, as the entering wedge of the plan I had formed. “But we can’t neglect those two places. The people would tear up the rails if we failed to accommodate them.” “We will not neglect them. I suggest that you run the dummy half an hour before the Lightning Express for way passengers.”