The first being that plum pudding was sure enough the answer to the governor’s inquiry, and the second was that the telegraph signal was still most certainly weak. The governor sat in the chair next to the desk. He pinched at the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.“I suppose this provides us the necessary conclusion for you to get under way, Marshal?”“Does,” Virgil said.Virgil turned, looking out the window north up the rail.“What about that?” Virgil said.He looked back to me as he pointed up the track.In the far distance at the top of the incline north of town, we could see the smoke from the Ironhorse as it came over the rise and started down the grade toward the depot.I knew what Virgil was thinking.“That Yard Goat got tender enough to travel between the water stations, Sam?” I said.“Sure,” Sam said. “Well, of course, it depends.”“On what?” Virgil asked.“The load it’s pulling,” Sam said. “On its own, no problem, though. Won’t do too much too long; it’s only got a sloped back twenty-five-hundred-gallon tender.”“Meaning?”
