The Argo Goes West

18、Crew on the Argo, part 2

The sixth and seventh cars are sleeping cars, and the eighth car is an open wagon with a cannon. The two cars behind them are also sleeping cars. And in the eleventh car behind it, there was a press room for journalists.

"Isn't it quite a comfortable ride?"

"I agree. Noise and vibration are greatly reduced.."

"Because it's Pullman. It's comparable to the Orient Express."

"So you've ridden it?"

"No," Washington Post reporter Floyd Murdock confessed. "But I'm not without complaints."

"For example?" asked his fellow cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman.

"The two cars behind this one. Car number 12 and 13. It looks like a freight car, but what exactly is it carrying?"

"Then I asked the conductor," said New York Times reporter Joe Arbogast. "He said one is the engineers' lab and the other is the machine hangar, though he doesn't know what is made or stored there."

Everyone was whispering. Because the car had another compartment separated by a door, and it was staffed by a security officer who looked like a bulldog.

"Shall I find out?" said Clifford Kent, a young reporter for the Evening Post.

"How?" asked Arbogast, and Kent smiled, "I sneak under the train and eavesdrop."

Everyone looked puzzled.

"Dangerous," said Murdoch.

"It's not dangerous," Kent replied.

"Easier said than done, or have you done it before?"

"Yes. Before I became a reporter, I was a hobo and traveled all over the United States and Canada."

"A hobo?" Arboghast rolled his eyes. "A hobo... a hobo that wanders around the country on a free ride, right?"

"Yes, that's right.", Kent laughed innocently like a child.

The reporters looked at Kent with a mixture of respect and contempt. His square, neat face bore no trace of a filthy vagabond. His hair was neat and clean, and he looked like the son of a prestigious family.

"Don't worry. Security won't try to kill me with an ax even if he find me."

"But you can't hear the conversation in the car because of the noise of the wheels, can you?" Arboghast said.

"I can hear," Kent replied with a smile. "I have done it many times."

The reporters looked at each other. Murdoch, who was the oldest and respected by everyone, spoke on behalf of everyone. "Don't do it now. If Vice President Roosevelt finds out, you'll be kicked off the train. But if anything happens, We'll count on you, Mr. Kent."

"I see." Kent humbly accepted the advice of senior reporters.

Behind the lab and hangar was the communications room. There were signalmen and Edison employees documenting the expedition. The last car (the fifteenth car) was an open wagon carrying a cannon, and the artillerymen kept a watchful eye for twenty-four hours to see if there was anything wrong with the rear.