Page:The railway children (IA railwaychildren00nesb 1).pdf/111

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THE ENGINE-BURGLAR
97

train—a friend of theirs—and she had the joy of knowing what guards do in their secret fastnesses, and understood how, when you pull the handle in railway carriages, properly or improperly, a wheel goes round under the guard's nose and a loud bell rings in his ears. She asked the guard why his van smelt so fishy, and learned that he had to carry a lot of fish every day, and that the wetness in the hollows of the corrugated floor had all drained out of boxes full of plaice and cod and mackerel and soles and smelts.

Bobbie got home in time for tea, and she felt as though her mind would burst with all that had been put into it since she parted from the others. How she blessed the nail that had torn her frock!

"Where have you been?" asked the others.

"To the station, of course," said Roberta. But she would not tell a word of her adventures till the day appointed, when she mysteriously led them to the station at the hour of the 3.19's transit, and proudly introduced them to her friends, Bill and Jim—Jim's second cousin's wife's brother had not been unworthy of the sacred trust reposed in him. The toy engine was, literally, as good as new.

"Good-by—oh, good-by," said Bobbie, just before the engine screamed it's good-by. "I