"John D. Fitzgerald - The Great Brain At the AcademyUC - 4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fitzgerald John D)

"Never mind," Tom said. "I'll go to the washroom
and get it out myself."

"I was just joking," Sweyn said, taking out his hand-
kerchief.

He got the cinder out of Tom's eye just as the con-
ductor came into the coach. The conductor was a big
ruddy-faced man wearing the traditional blue uniform
and cap with a big gold watch chain across his vest. When
he came to them he took their tickets and placed two blue
stubs under the metal tabs on the seats. Then he looked at
Tom's red eye-

"I see it didn't take you long to learn not to open a
window on a train, sonny," he said.

Being called "sonny" always made Tom angry. "My
name is Tom Fitzgerald, not sonny," he said. "And I
can't help wondering why they don't put screens on coach
windows so passengers won't get cinders in their eyes."

"Well now, Tom Fitzgerald." the conductor said, "it
just so happens that on the newer coaches on the main line

we do have screens on the windows. But you still can't
open a window when the train is moving."

"Why not?" Tom asked.

"Smoke from the locomotive would get into the pas-
senger cars," the conductor said.

"They could fix it so all windows could be opened
without any cinders or smoke getting into the passenger
cars," Tom said, although he didn't have the least idea of
exactly how it could be done.

"And just how would they do that?" the conductor
aaked. "I'm sure the president of this railroad and of every
other railroad would be delighted to know."

Tom didn't miss seeing the conductor wink at the
other passengers. He tapped his index finger to his tem-
ple. "I'll put my great brain to work on it," he said, "and
let you know when you finish collecting tickets."

"I'll be back," the conductor said. "I wouldn't miss
hearing this for the world."