“Yes; but there are more police around to-day,” was added by another.

Hurstwood hearkened without much mental comment.  These talkers seemed scared to him.  Their gabbling was feverish—­things said to quiet their own minds.  He looked out into the yard and waited.

Two of the men got around quite near him, but behind his back.  They were rather social, and he listened to what they said.

“Are you a railroad man?” said one.

“Me?  No.  I’ve always worked in a paper factory.”

“I had a job in Newark until last October,” returned the other, with reciprocal feeling.

There were some words which passed too low to hear.  Then the conversation became strong again.

“I don’t blame these fellers for striking,” said one.  “They’ve got the right of it, all right, but I had to get something to do.”

“Same here,” said the other.  “If I had any job in Newark I wouldn’t be over here takin’ chances like these.”

“It’s hell these days, ain’t it?” said the man.  “A poor man ain’t nowhere.  You could starve, by God, right in the streets, and there ain’t most no one would help you.”

“Right you are,” said the other.  “The job I had I lost ’cause they shut down.  They run all summer and lay up a big stock, and then shut down.”

Hurstwood paid some little attention to this.  Somehow, he felt a little superior to these two—­a little better off.  To him these were ignorant and commonplace, poor sheep in a driver’s hand.

“Poor devils,” he thought, speaking out of the thoughts and feelings of a bygone period of success.  “Next,” said one of the instructors.

“You’re next,” said a neighbor, touching him.

He went out and climbed on the platform.  The instructor took it for granted that no preliminaries were needed.

“You see this handle,” he said, reaching up to an electric cutoff, which was fastened to the roof.  “This throws the current off or on.  If you want to reverse the car you turn it over here.  If you want to send it forward, you put it over here.  If you want to cut off the power, you keep it in the middle.”

Hurstwood smiled at the simple information.

“Now, this handle here regulates your speed.  To here,” he said, pointing with his finger, “gives you about four miles an hour.  This is eight.  When it’s full on, you make about fourteen miles an hour.”

Hurstwood watched him calmly.  He had seen motormen work before.  He knew just about how they did it, and was sure he could do as well, with a very little practice.

The instructor explained a few more details, and then said: 

“Now, we’ll back her up.”

Hurstwood stood placidly by, while the car rolled back into the yard.

“One thing you want to be careful about, and that is to start easy.  Give one degree time to act before you start another.  The one fault of most men is that they always want to throw her wide open.  That’s bad.  It’s dangerous, too.  Wears out the motor.  You don’t want to do that.”