The Golden Coach
When the door of the box car slammed shut, Connie and Veve were so
startled that for an instant they scarcely could think.
Then they both jumped from the coach and ran to the door.
“Let us out!” screamed Connie.
“Open the door!” shouted Veve.
The man who had locked them in by accident did not hear. He had walked
away. With the door closed, the box car was very dark.
Badly frightened, the two girls beat on the door with their fists. But
they could not force it open.
“Oh, why doesn’t someone let us out?” wailed Connie.
Even as she spoke, the car gave a hard jolt. Veve nearly was thrown
from her feet.
“The engine is being hooked on!” she cried. “Oh, Connie, we’ll be
carried away with the circus.”
Connie was nearly as terrified as her little friend. Frequently she had
remarked that she would like to go away with a circus. Of course, she
hadn’t really meant it. And certainly she didn’t wish to be carried
away in a locked box car.
“What will Miss Gordon think?” she gasped. “She will wait and wait at
the car for us, and we’ll never get there.”
Frantically, the two girls began to beat on the door again with their
fists. “Let us out! Let us out!” they shouted over and over.
Veve screamed as hard as she could. She even called Miss Gordon’s name,
though she knew the Brownie troop leader was too far away to be of any
help.
The screams of the two girls went unheard. Already the circus man who
had locked the door was far away.
All too soon, the girls heard a loud hissing sound.
“I know what that is,” whispered Veve.
“What, Veve?” It was all Connie could do to be brave.
“The engineer is letting air out of the brakes. That means the train is
about to start.”
Veve was right too. Within a few minutes the car lurched forward and
the couplings between the other cars went, “chunk-chunk, chunk-chunk.”
The two girls nearly were thrown to the floor.
Despair overcame them as they heard the wheels going “clickity-click”
every time they passed from one rail to another. The sound came faster
and faster. Connie and Veve knew the train was leaving Shady Hollow,
moving along at a lively clip.
“Oh, Connie, were being carried away with the circus,” Veve wailed.
“How will we ever get back to camp? How will we ever get home?”
Connie wondered the same thing. She was desperately afraid it might be
a long while before anyone came to open the car door. And by that time
they would be miles away from Shady Hollow.
Only a little light filtered into the car through a small ventilator
door high in the wall. Although they could see each other, objects
about them were hazy.
“Stay close to me, Connie,” Veve shivered. “I’m afraid.”
“I don’t feel so brave myself,” answered Connie.
“Do you think we ever will get out of here?” Veve asked in a quavering
voice. She stared at the canvas bundles and boxes stacked in the car.
They looked as if they might be alive, though she knew they weren’t.
“Of course we’ll get out,” replied Connie staunchly.
“But when?”
“I don’t know when,” admitted Connie. “But they will have to open up
this car sometime. Probably at the next stop.”
Clinging together and bracing themselves against the side of the car,
the girls tried not to think about Miss Gordon and the Brownie camp.
But they couldn’t help worrying. What would the troop leader do when
they failed to meet her at the car? Would she ever guess that they had
been taken away on the circus train?
And the good times they would miss at camp! Even now, the other
Brownies probably were enjoying a swim at the beach.
“We never should have crawled into this hateful old box car,” Connie
said, raising her voice above the rattle and bang of the rolling
wheels. “Miss Gordon’s told us a thousand times that Brownies THINK
before they act. We didn’t at all, Veve.”
“It was a mistake to get into the car,” Veve admitted. “But the engine
wasn’t hooked on. How did we know a man would come along and slam the
door shut?”
“That’s where we didn’t think,” Connie sighed. “Oh, dear! Miss Gordon
will be about frantic wondering where we are. And no one ever will
guess we’re on this circus train.”
Veve said nothing for a few minutes. With all her heart she wished that
she were back at Shady Hollow camp or at least home with her mother.
The nice house in Rosedale with its green lawn and trees seemed a
million miles away.
“Connie,” she called. Her voice was scarcely louder than a whisper.
“What, Veve?”
“Do you think we will starve to death in here?”
“No,” answered Connie. “I have a chocolate bar in my pocket. I brought
it from home and haven’t eaten it yet.”
Veve felt greatly relieved. Now, at least she thought they would have
something to eat for their dinner. Already she was beginning to feel
hungry too.
“Let’s eat the candy right away,” she proposed to Connie.
“No, we must save it until we’re terribly hungry,” Connie told her.
“We may be in here a long while, and it’s all the food we have.”
The train was moving very rapidly, causing the car to sway back
and forth. Connie could feel the floor trembling beneath her feet.
She wondered if riding in a box car was anything like being in an
earthquake.
Both girls were feeling a little less afraid when suddenly they heard a
terrific roar. Plainly it came from the car just ahead of theirs.
Veve clutched Connie’s hand. “What was that?” she whispered.
“It sounded like an old lion,” Connie said. Her teeth were chattering.
“Oh, Connie, what if it should try to break in here?”
“It won’t,” replied Connie. However, she did not feel too certain.
Other animals on the train had started to make strange noises also. Now
and then something banged hard against a car wall. The girls imagined
it was the lion trying to break out.
For a long while, Veve and Connie huddled together, listening. The wild
animals had become quieter now.
“That old lion can’t get us,” Veve said presently. “I’m not afraid of
him.” She stood up to stretch her cramped legs.
By this time, Connie felt more at ease too. As her eyes became more
accustomed to the darkness, she began to gaze about the car.
“Let’s find out what has been stored in here,” she proposed. “Maybe we
can find some food.”
Crawling through the body of the golden coach, the two girls came out
on the other side. Stacked high against the sides of the car were
several large bundles of canvas.
“What do you think they are, Connie?” inquired Veve, kicking one of the
bundles.
“Side show tents.”
“We could slide down ’em,” said Veve. “Only I don’t think it would be
much fun.”
“Neither do I. We’d get all dirty.” Connie looked down at her Brownie
uniform, already wrinkled.
Veve’s white blouse was smudged with dust and her hands felt gritty.
The box car seemed to be very dirty.
“Let’s climb back into the golden coach,” Connie suggested. “It will be
more comfortable there than sitting on the car floor.”
For a while, the girls amused themselves by playing imaginary games.
Connie pretended she was queen of the circus while Veve drove the
horses. Tiring of that, they tried Wild West. The girls took turns
driving the mail in their stagecoach and saying that the Indians were
after them. But soon they became tired of that game too.
“It’s no fun without real Indians,” Veve complained. “What time do you
suppose it is?”
“We’ve been on the train at least an hour--maybe two or three. It must
be nearly six o’clock.”
“Then let’s eat the candy bar. I’m terribly hungry, Connie.”
“So am I,” admitted Connie.
From her pocket she took the candy bar. Somehow it had become crushed,
the tinfoil pressing down into the chocolate.
However, the girls did not mind. Peeling off the foil, they divided the
bar into equal parts and ate every crumb.
Veve now became very thirsty. She thought of the cool glass of milk she
might have had at camp, and felt like crying.
“Do you suppose Miss Gordon has missed us yet?” she asked.
“Of course she has, Veve. She must have known something happened to us
soon after we failed to meet her at the car.”
“But she can’t know we were taken away by the train.”
“Not unless the hardware man saw us climb into the car. And I don’t
think he did.”
Veve was silent for a while and then she said:
“Do you suppose Miss Gordon will tell our folks that we’re missing?
Then they might look for us.”
“But they can’t find us,” Connie said dismally. “We must be a hundred
miles from Shady Hollow by this time. Maybe two hundred. The only
persons we can expect to find us now are the circus folk.”
Both girls were very tired and worried. But they were careful not to
blame each other for their predicament. They knew they both had been
equally careless in climbing into the car.
Gradually, it became darker in the golden coach where the children sat.
Too discouraged to play games, they merely rode in silence.
Then suddenly, the car gave several little jerks as it rolled along.
“The engineer is putting on the brakes!” cried Veve. “We’re slowing
down!”
With Connie close beside her, she scrambled from the coach and ran to
the car door. Pressing their faces close to the cracks, they tried to
see out.
“We’re stopping all right!” exclaimed Veve hopefully.
“Now someone should find us!” cried Connie. “Let’s yell as loud as we
can.”
The two girls waited until the train came to a complete stop. Then they
pounded as hard as they could on the door and shouted.
“Oh, Connie, won’t anyone _ever_ hear us?” wailed Veve.
No one came to open the door. In the cars nearby, the animals had
started to roar again. The shouts of Connie and Veve were completely
drowned out. Within a few minutes, the train began to move again.
“I guess we only stopped to take on water,” said Connie in a
discouraged voice. “It wasn’t a regular station.”
“How much longer do you think we will have to stay in here?”
Connie didn’t try to answer. She really was worried. But she kept
telling herself the circus couldn’t have a show without using the
golden coach. When that time came, it would be unloaded and they
surely would be found.
Seeking a comfortable place to sit, the girls climbed back into the
rear coach seat. The steady rocking of the train made them feel rather
drowsy.
Connie curled up in a ball, kitten fashion, and went to sleep. Veve
made up her mind she would stay awake, but soon she had dozed off too.
However, it seemed to Connie that she scarcely had closed her eyes when
someone shook her arm.
At first Veve thought she must be dreaming. The car was dark and she
didn’t know where she was.
“Wake up!” commanded a voice. She was given another hard shake. “How
did you get in here?”
Before Veve could answer, the man went to the door of the box car. He
shouted to someone far down the tracks.
“Hey, Bill! Come here! I’ve found a couple of kids asleep in the golden
coach! Runaways!”
Both Connie and Veve sat up, rubbing their eyes. By now they were very
much awake.
“We’re not runaways,” Veve said quickly. “Someone locked us up in this
old car by mistake. And we want to get out right away!”