THE TRAIN
That man's name was Pedro De Vail, and he was French, only he was born
in Hoboken. He was the greatest ventriloquist in the whole world. He
said so, and gee whiz, he ought to know. Westy said that when he said
anything, it counted for a whole lot, because he could say it in half a
dozen different voices. But, oh, boy, Pee-wee lost his voice entirely.
Anyway, Mr. Pedro said it didn't make any difference, because he had a
lot of voices to spare. I guess he kind of liked Pee-wee.
As long as we were there we made him a call, and I guess he'd be pretty
good at stalking, because he could imitate all the animals and birds,
and he could make you think he was sawing wood. He said that the place
where we were was the Fair Grounds, and that the next day the Firemen's
Carnival was going to start there. He said it was going to last three
days. He said he always went to County Fairs and Carnivals and things
like that. He told us that Flimdunk was about a couple of miles away.
We told him all about our adventures and about the Brewster's Centre
car. I said, "As long as we're here, I'm glad of it, because we can take
in the Carnival. I hope that train twenty-three doesn't come until late
to-morrow; I hope it doesn't come until to-morrow night. Better late
than sooner."
He said, "Well, there are going to be big doings to-morrow--races,
balloon ascension, murders and everything like that. But I'm afraid you
boys are going to be disappointed. There's a train comes through here
about four or five in the morning, going east. I think that'll be the
one to pick you up."
We went back to our car feeling pretty glum about it. Jiminies, you
couldn't blame us. What was the good of being left at a carnival in the
middle of the night and taken away again before daylight? That's one
thing I don't like about railroads; they do just as they please. They
push you and pull you around and take you away again before you want to
go.
"Why can't they let us spend Columbus Day here?" Westy wanted to know.
"When did the brakeman say it would come?" Connie asked.
"Hanged if _I_ remember," I said; "but I knew how it would be when I
heard that the train would be Number Twenty-three. I'll never trust that
number."
"And races and everything, too," Wig said.
"Sure, and a balloon ascension," Connie began grouching.
"Maybe he's mistaken," I said; "we've had pretty good fun, anyway."
"You call it fun, starting away just when the fun is going to begin?"
Pee-wee piped up.
I guess we didn't know what to think or what to expect. Anyway, I knew
that the train that had left us there would telegraph to some place or
other about us, that was all I knew. When another train stopped for us,
we'd just have to go.
"Anyway, let's have something to eat and turn in," I said; "we'll just
have to trust to luck."
One sure thing, we all felt pretty bad, because the next day was a
holiday and there'd be lots of fun at that Carnival. I made some rice
cakes and then we fixed the seats and turned in.
I don't know how long I had been asleep, but what made me wake up was
the whistle of a locomotive. Westy woke up, too, and we both listened.
"It's coming," he said.
"The game is up," I told him.
Pretty soon we were all awake, listening. The train was backing down
along the branch track and coming nearer and nearer to us. We could
hear the engine puffing, and the sound of wheels going _ker-lick_,
_ker-lick_, as the train backed in very slowly. Gee whiz, I was
feeling sore.
"Come on out on the platform," Westy said.
"This railroad makes me sick," Connie grouched.
"Why couldn't they wait until to-morrow night?" Wig wanted to know. "I
thought we were going to have a good day's fun."
Out on the platform all we saw was a man sitting on the railing in the
dark.
"Where's the pesky old train, anyway?" I said.
"Train?" the man said; "what train?"
Then he just reached forward and ruffled up our young hero's hair.
I was all flabbergasted. "Mr. _Pedro_!" I just blurted out.
"I thought I'd pay you back, that's all," he said.
Oh, boy, couldn't that man imitate a train!