“What work do you want me to do?” I asked, rising to my feet.
He advanced with outstretched arms, a bestial demon looking out of his
red-brown eyes. I backed behind the table, fury and dread causing my
heart to beat tumultuously.
Just then a short ring came at the side entrance. Dr. Loane drew back
with a muttered curse. We stood motionless for a moment. The bell rang
again, insistently.
“You, you keep quiet now. Remember what you are,” he hissed, and strode
to the door.
I lost no time in dashing to the garage, where I found Dan tinkering
with the car.
“Come, Dan, quick! Let’s get out of here,” I cried.
“What’s up, Ethel?” He came out wiping his hands on a piece of waste.
“Never mind an explanation. I’ll tell you later.” I spoke imperiously.
“Get the wheel now and don’t stop to talk.”
We started in the direction of the business section of the city.
“I think we had better take the wheel over by the railroad yard, Dan,
and see if you can’t arrange for us to take a freight out of here. I’m a
trifle nervous about that old beast of a doctor. He impressed me as the
kind of man to make us trouble if possible, have us arrested or
something.”
At the station I waited for Dan to see what arrangements he could make.
In a few moments he returned to the waiting-room door with a troubled
countenance.
“A freight is going to pull out in about an hour, but I haven’t been
able to make any impression on the crew. You know, the rules are pretty
strict against carrying passengers on freight trains and the boys are
afraid of their jobs. I think we’d better give up the idea and ride out
on the bike. I cached it down at the end of the yard.”
“I think I’d better talk to the trainmen, Dan,” I replied seriously.
“I’d like to get away as soon as possible. I am afraid the doctor may
make trouble for us.”
We walked up the track to where a freight engine was puffing back and
forth placing cars in a long train, like a fussy old woman stringing
beads. A lean-jawed man in blue denim with a conductor’s cap pulled over
his eyes turned at our approach.
“Good evening, Conductor,” I began, looking him full in the face. “We
have no money and we must get out of this town immediately. I should
like to put our bicycle, which is down at the end of the yard, in some
empty car that you are going to take out to-night, and get a lift for
fifteen or twenty miles.”
His keen grey eyes bored into mine. “What’s the trouble that you got to
get out of town? Been holding up somebody?” he queried gruffly.
“My husband and I rode into town this morning and started to hunt work
as usual. We stopped at a doctor’s house over on the north side, Doctor
Stanchley Loane’s, and he gave us work for the day. His wife was out, my
husband was cleaning the auto in the garage, and while I was at work in
his private office, he attacked me. I gave him the slip and got away.
Now, if we ride the wheel out of town, I’m afraid he’ll make trouble for
us. He expects us to go that way.”
“The old son-of-a——” the conductor stopped abruptly. “He’s a bad egg all
right. We all know that, but I scarcely thought he’d dare go so far. Of
course, your being a sort of hobo——” He stopped again. “Reckon he didn’t
take a very close look at those shoulders of yours, or he wouldn’t have
tried to get fresh. Well, we’ll see what can be done. Where did you say
your wheel is?”
Dan described its location.
“All right. You go there and be ready. We’ll shunt an empty down that
way and when the coast seems clear, you pile aboard and lie low. It’s a
risky business, but it’s all in a lifetime.” He turned away and began
signalling the engineer.
Dan and I scuttled down the track. When we had the wheel in hand, ready
for loading, he turned to me.
“Did that old devil actually try to lay hands on you? Why didn’t you
tell me when you came out to the garage? I’d like to go back and crack
his nut for him.”
“I’m glad enough to get out of the nasty scrape without any
skull-cracking. You must remember that we are looked upon as hoboes, and
hoboes have no rights. I do wish the men would hurry with that car.”
As though in answer to my thought, a box car rolled gently down the
track and came to a stop not ten feet from where we waited.
“Good shot,” said Dan as we slid back the side door, which was ajar.
A long look around and I scrambled in, while Dan hoisted up the wheel
and quickly followed. The bottom of the car was packed solid with
radiators, which were piled almost to the top in the rear end, each tier
held in place by heavy braces. We stacked the tandem in a convenient
corner and crouched in silence on the crates.
Soon there came a clinking rumble, there was a slight jar, and our car
moved up the line to take its place in the outgoing train.
An hour or more passed while the train roared on. Dan sat by the door,
while I, lulled by the clank of wheels and the panting breath of the
engine that was whirling us homeward, leaned against the radiator braces
in the centre of the car and lost myself in dreams.
Came a shriek of the whistle, a grinding crash, and the floor of the car
seemed to buckle under me while something dealt me a terrific blow
between the shoulders, lifting me clear into the air and flinging me
headlong against the front timbers.
Consciousness struggled back from the void of nothingness and I heard
Dan’s agonised voice in my ear.
“My God, Ethel, speak to me. Are you hurt? Oh, she doesn’t answer! She
can’t be dead! Ethel! Ethel!”
As he dragged my limp body toward the door a flaming torture seared my
lungs, my mouth filled with a hot, brackish fluid. “Wait,” I gasped,
half strangled. “Let me rest a moment. I’ll be all right in a minute.”
He must not know my plight. I turned my head away as his groping fingers
caressed my hair, thankful for the thick darkness as I freed my mouth of
blood.
“Oh, thank God! Thank God!” he was whispering softly as he tried to lift
me in his arms.
“Let me lie flat for a little while, dear. Then I’ll get up. Are you all
right?”
“Yes, I’m O.K. It wasn’t a regular wreck. We must have run into
something. The shock threw the radiators about. The air seemed full of
them, but I got off scot free. You and the tandem and the radiators were
all in a scramble. I thought I should never get you out. You’re sure you
are not hurt?”
“I feel rather shaken, but I believe there is nothing serious the
matter. I had a rap that put me out for a few minutes, that’s all.”
“What happened?” called Dan to the conductor who approached with a
lantern as I finished scrubbing the blood from my face.
“A drunken bum stalled his team on the crossing. The engine rounded the
curve and was within a hundred feet before Sam saw the wagon. The
good-for-nothing sot was off in front of the horses, else he would be in
kingdom come. How did you come out? Did it shake you up much when Sam
set the emergencies?”
“My wife had a pretty thorough pounding. The blamed radiators broke
loose and piled up in the front of the car. Guess we’d better try
another Pullman or clear out altogether. What do you want to do, Ethel?”
“Oh, let’s ride as far as we can. Even a freight train covers ground so
quickly compared to our slow old wheel.”
“All right, but we’d better hunt another carriage.”
The conductor stood hesitating. “This radiator car is billed straight
through to Frisco,” he informed us. “I picked her out for that reason.
There ain’t many cars left open like she is. Don’t know how it comes she
ain’t sealed shut. But if you have real good luck, you might be able to
skate right through to Frisco in a week or ten days. It’ll be a pretty
rough trip, but if you want to get to Cal in a hurry, it’ll beat pumping
a bike.”
“Oh, Dan, we must try it. I’d ride the bumpers or the cowcatcher to get
home in a week,” I cried, forgetting my pain in such a joyful prospect.
“It seems a trifle risky to trust those radiators again, but you’re the
doctor, so here goes.”
As Dan settled down beside me the conductor slipped a bill into his hand
and ducked away. The engineer signalled that he was ready to be off.
When the train took the next siding to permit repairs on the engine, Dan
secured a lantern and we straightened our tangled possessions and made
ourselves as comfortable as possible for the night.
I was glad when Dan slept, for I feared he would notice my restless
seeking for some posture in which I could forget my aches and pains in
sleep. But my hopes were in vain, for mind and body conspired to hold my
nerves at a tension. The events of the day, which seemed of a month’s
duration, formed a kaleidoscopic jumble in my brain.
Morning dawned at last and I lay prone on the radiator crates, while Dan
busied himself with the tandem, which had also suffered in the mêlée of
the evening before.
It was nearly dark when we pulled into the railroad yard at Des Moines.
Our car was switched off the main track, and Dan immediately got out to
purchase provisions for the western trip. Trembling at every noise, I
awaited his return, and it was not long till he was back with an armful
of bundles and a kettle of water. Another train was being made up and
soon our car was shunted into place. The engineer had given the signal
for the crew to assemble and my breath had begun to come easier, when
the door was jerked open and a man thrust in his head.
“Hey, yous! Come out of that,” he snarled. “Here, Tim, I’ve found a
couple of boes. Come on out now,” as we made no move. “If you don’t,
you’ll wish you had in about two seconds.”
Slowly Dan clambered out. I followed.
“What to hell have we here? Blamed if it ain’t a woman!” the detective
cried.
Tim, meanwhile, advanced with a lantern, and having given us a close
inspection, leaped into the car.
“What in blazes is this?” he exclaimed, catching sight of the wheel.
Dan explained shortly.
“Well, yank her out of here. This car moves in about two minutes.”
Dan sprang inside and lowered the wheel to me. Tim threw our bundles to
the ground. “Toot, toot,” whistled the engine. The train pulled out.
As the familiar car moved away, my heart seemed breaking. All my hopes
of reaching California in a few days crashed to the ground; thoughts of
the fierce railroad detectives, the waiting jail, the courtroom in the
morning, surged over me. I burst into tears.
“What ya goin’ t’ do wid ’em, Joe? Run ’em in?” queried Tim.
“Naw, don’t believe I will. Come, now,” turning to us. “Beat it out o’
here and don’t let me catch yous fooling around this yard any more. Go
on. Beat it quick.”
Glad enough to escape, we stumbled up the track through the darkness.
“Aw now, aw now,” said a hoarse voice at my elbow. “It’s pretty fierce
luck, all right. But never you mind, lady, we’ll get you out of here all
right. Just come right along to our shack and we’ll fix you up fine.”
In a few minutes we came to a tiny one-room shanty, formed from an old
car, which was fitted up with a stove, bunks, a table and chairs. My
kindly guide set out soap, clean towels and a fine, big basin of hot
water. What luxury! I plunged my grimy hands into the grateful depths
and laved my blackened, tear-stained face.
When Dan had made a refreshing toilet, we sat down to the first real
meal in two days. Our friends, the car inspectors, watched us eat with
much satisfaction while discussing the best method of getting us safely
out of Des Moines. Picking up his switchman’s lantern, one stepped out
and soon returned with the report that an empty car would go out in a
freight that left about two o’clock.
The men conducted us by a circuitous way to a cattle car, the bottom of
which was covered with a thick layer of clean straw. The detectives had
already examined and passed this car, so under the protection of the car
inspectors, it was quite safe to climb aboard. Our wheel was hoisted in
and laid flat in a corner, and after an attempt to express our
gratitude—really too deep for words—we ourselves lay down and were well
covered with straw. I fell asleep immediately.
The rays of a lantern, which was thrust within a few inches of my face,
aroused me. The train was grinding to a stop, and as I blinked stupidly
in the sudden light, I heard voices deep in argument.
“I tell you, they’re no spotters. She has an honest face.”
And another voice answered, “Well, let ’em ride to the next station and
ask ’em a few questions.”
The lantern flashed the signal, and once more we were under way.
The “brakie” settled himself in the straw. Dan produced his union card,
our marriage license and other papers to prove our identity; the wheel
was uncovered for inspection, and a few questions confirmed the brakeman
in his opinion of our honesty. At the next stop the conductor joined us
and agreed to move us into a closed car before daylight.
So to-day we rest in comfort and despite the ache of bruised and
stiffened shoulders I am happy in the thought that to-morrow’s dawn will
see us close to Council Bluffs.