That fellow's contempt for his job was equaled only by the babu station master's scorn of him and his own for the station master.

Yet both men did their jobs efficiently.
"Only an hour for dinner, gents--train starts on time!" "Guard!" called a female voice we all three recognized--"Guard! Come here at once, I want you!" We left Brown of Lumbwa snoring a good imitation of the Battle of Waterloo on the upper berth, and filed out to the dimly-lighted platform.

A space in the center was roofed with corrugated iron and under that the yellow lamplight cast a maze of moving shadows as the passengers swarmed toward the dining-room.

The smell of greasy cooking blended with the reek of axle and lamp oil.

At the platform's forward end shadowy figures were throwing cord-wood into the tender, and the thump-thump-thump of that sounded like impatience; everything else suggested lethargy.
"Guard!" called the voice again.