near two months. A man can't expect to get out of bed after a lay-off
like that and start right in again before he gets his strength back.
You know that as well as I do."

"Mabbe I do, and mabbe I don't," said Owsley, a little uncertainly.
"How'm I going to get strong?"

"Well," replied Regan, "the doc says open-air work to build you up, and
we were thinking you might like to put in a month, say, with Bill
McCann up on the Elk River work--helping him boss Polacks, for
instance."

Owsley didn't speak for a moment, he seemed to be puzzling something
out; then, still in a puzzled way:

"And then what about after the month?"

"Why then," said Regan, "then"--he reached for his hip pocket and his
plug, pulled out the plug, picked the heart-shaped tin tag off with his
thumb nail, decided not to take a bite, and put the blackstrap back in
his pocket again. "Why then," said he, "you'll--you ought to be all
right again."

Owsley sat up in bed.

"You playing straight with me, Regan?" he asked slowly.

"Sure," said Regan gruffly. "Sure, I am."

Owsley passed his hand two or three times across his eyes.

"I don't quite seem to get the signals right on what's happened," he
said. "I guess I've been pretty sick. I kind of had a feeling a
minute ago that you were trying to side-track me, but if you say you
ain't, I believe you. I ain't going to be side-tracked. When I quit
for keeps, I quit in the cab with my boots on--no way else. I'll tell
you something, Regan. When I go out, I'm going out with my hand on the
throttle, same as it's been for more'n twenty years. And me and the
old 1601, we're going out together--that's the way I want to go when
the time comes--and that's the way I'm going. I've known it for a long
time."

"How do you mean you've known it for a long time?" Regan swallowed a
lump in his throat, as he asked the question--Owsley's mind seemed to
be wandering a little.

"I dunno," said Owsley, and his hand crept to his head again. "I
dunno--I just know." Then abruptly: "I got to get strong for the old
1601, ain't I? That's right. I'll go up there--only you give me your
word I get the 1601 back after the month."

Regan's eyes, from the floor, lifted and met Owsley's steadily.

"You bet, Jake!" he said.

"Give me your hand on it," said Owsley happily.

And Regan gripped the engineer's hand.

Regan left the room a moment or two after that, and on his way
downstairs he brushed the back of