“Wait till I kick them empties in on the house track. Who's it for?” “Don't stop for that! It's the President!” Jawn grunted, and walked deliberately across the tracks and into the roundhouse, followed by his fireman. Murphy, the hostler, was hovering about the big throbbing locomotive, putting a final polish on the oil-cups and piston-rods. Jawn, without a word, climbed into the cab, and out over the tender, where he lifted the tank lid and peered down at the water. “Never mind that,” the agent called. “You can water up at Byron.” Jawn slowly clambered over the coal and leaned against the doorway, packing the tobacco firmly into his pipe with his fire-proof little finger. “Young man,” he said gruffly, “I run this engine for four years without taking water between here and Manchester, and I reckon I can do it agin.” Then he pulled her slowly out of the roundhouse. In the meantime, the operator had sent this message to the train despatcher at Manchester:-- Want right of way over everything. Pres. coming on light engine. To which the despatcher replied:-- Run to Manchester extra regardless of all trains. When the engine finally rolled into the station Jim was pacing up and down; he was as nearly impatient as Jim Weeks could be. “You'll have to move faster than that,” he said shortly, swinging himself up the steps. Jawn glanced at him without reply, then looked at his watch. It was twenty minutes after ten. He laid his hand upon the throttle and pulled. There was a gasp of steam, a whirring and slipping of the drive wheels, and the engine plunged forward. Jawn fingered the lever with a lover's caress. He knew old “eleven,” every foot of her, every tube, bolt, and strap. As they cleared the yards, he threw her wider and wider open until she was lunging and lurching madly. The cinders beat a tattoo upon the cab, and Jim Weeks crowded up into the corner. The fireman, a strapping young fellow, threw in great shovels of coal with the regularity of a machine, pausing only to wipe his forehead with the back of his hand as the heat grew intense. When he opened the furnace door, Jim could see the glowing bed lift and stir with the jolt of the engine.