He said that he had left a few
birches to screen the line of the upper switch, for fear
some nervous bungler, driving an engine down, might be
frightened, and "blow" about the switch. But he said
that any night when the others were ready to make
the fly, he was; that there would be a full moon the next
Wednesday, and, if there was no wind, he hoped they would
do it then.
"You know," said poor Joslyn, describing it to me, "I
should never have done it alone; August would never have
done it alone; no, I do not think that Bill Todhunter
himself would have done it alone. But our heads were
full of it. We had thought of it and thought of it till
we did not think of much else; and here was everything
ready, and neither of us was afraid, and neither of us
chose to have the others think he was afraid. I did say,
what was the truth, that I had never meant to try it with
a train. I had only thought that we should apply to the
supe, and that he would get up a little excursion party
of gentlemen,--editors, you know, and stockholders,--who
would like to do it together, and that I should have the
pleasure and honor of taking them over. But Todhunter
poohed at that. He said all the calculations were made
for the inertia of a full train, that that was what the
switch was graded for, and that everything would have to
be altered if any part of the plan were altered.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259