BONNY DISCOVERS HIS FRIEND THE TRAMP
It was late in the afternoon when the train reached Tacoma, and the
logging boss discovered that the lads whom he had been especially
instructed to bring with him had disappeared. As he could not imagine
any reason why they should do such a thing, he was thoroughly
bewildered, and waited about the station for some minutes, expecting
them to turn up. He inquired of the train hands and other employes if
they had seen anything of such boys as he described, but could gain no
information concerning them.
The revenue-officer was merely an acquaintance whom he had met by chance
on the train, and who now waited a few minutes to see how this affair
would turn out. Finally he said:
"Well, Linton, I'm sorry I can't help you, but I really must be getting
along. I hope, though, you won't have any such trouble with your missing
lads as we had in trying to catch two young rascals of smugglers, whom
we lost right here in Tacoma last summer. We wanted them as witnesses,
and thought we had our hands on them half a dozen times; but they
finally gave us the slip, and the case in which they were expected to
testify was dismissed for want of evidence. Good-bye."
Thus left to his own devices, the boss could think of nothing better
than to call upon the police to aid him in recovering the missing boys,
and so powerful was the name of the President of the Northwest Lumber
Company, which he did not hesitate to use, that within an hour every
policeman in Tacoma was provided with their description, and instructed
to capture them if possible. In the hope that they would speedily
succeed in so doing, Mr. Linton delayed meeting the president, and
telegraphed that he could not reach the hotel to which he had been
directed to bring the boys before eight o'clock that evening.
In the meantime Alaric and Bonny, without an idea of the stir their
disappearance had created throughout the city, were snugly ensconced in
an empty freight-car that stood within a hundred yards of the railway
station. They had dropped from the rear end of their train when it began
to slow down, and slipped into the freight-car as a place of temporary
concealment while they discussed plans.
"We've got to get out of this town in a hurry, that's certain," said
Alaric, "and I propose that we make a start for San Francisco. You know,
I told you that was my home, and I still have some friends there, who, I
believe, will help us. The only thing is that I don't see how we can
travel so far without any money."
"That's easy enough," replied Bonny, "and I would guarantee to land you
there in good shape inside of a week. What worries me, though, is the
idea of going off and leaving all the money that is due us here. Just
think! there's thirty dollars owing to me as a hump-durgin driver,
thirty more as interpreter, and fully as much as that for being a
smuggler--nearly one hundred dollars in all. That's a terrible lot of
money, Rick Dale, and you know it as well as I do."
"Yes," replied Alaric; "if we had it now, we'd be all right. But I'll
tell you, Bonny, what I'll do. If you will get me to San Francisco
inside of a week, I promise that you shall have one hundred dollars the
day we arrive."
"I'll do it!" cried Bonny. "I know you are joking, of course, but I'll
do it just to see how you'll manage to crawl out of your bargain when we
get there. You mustn't expect to travel in a private car, though, with a
French cook, and three square meals a day thrown in."
"Yes, I do," laughed Alaric, "for I never travelled any other way."
"No, I know you haven't, any more'n I have; but, just for a change, I
think we'd better try freight-cars, riding on trucks, and perhaps once
in a while in a caboose, for this trip, with meals whenever we can catch
'em. We'll get there, though; I promise you that. Hello! I mustn't lose
that ball. We may want to have a game on the road."
This last remark was called forth by Alaric's baseball which, becoming
uncomfortably bulgy in Bonny's pocket as he sat on the car floor, he had
taken out, and had been tossing from hand to hand as he talked. At
length it slipped from him, rolled across the car, and out of the open
door.
Bonny sprang after it, tossed it in to Alaric, and was about to clamber
back into the car, when, through the gathering gloom, he spied a
familiar figure standing in the glare of one of the station lights.
"Wait here a few minutes, Rick," he said, "while I go and find out when
our train starts."
With this he darted up the track, and a moment later advanced, with a
smile of recognition and extended hand, towards the stranger whom he had
so pitied in the logging camp the day before. The man still wore a
shabby suit and the hat Bonny had given him. He started at sight of the
lad, and exclaimed:
"How came you here so soon? I thought you weren't due until eight
o'clock."
"How did you know we were coming at all?" asked Bonny, in amazement.
"Oh, that's a secret," laughed the other, instantly recovering his
self-possession, and assuming his manner of the day before. "We tramps
have a way of finding out things, you know."
"Yes, I've always heard so," replied Bonny, "and that's one reason why
I'm so glad to meet you again. I thought maybe you could help us."
"Us?" repeated the stranger. "Who is with you?"
"Only my chum, the other hump-durgin driver, you know."
"You mean Richard Dale?"
"Yes--only his name isn't Richard, but Alaric. I say, though, would you
mind stepping over in the shadow, where we won't be interrupted?"
"Certainly not," replied the other, with a quiet chuckle. "I expect it
will be better, for I'm not anxious to be recognized myself just now."
When they had reached what Bonny considered a safe place, he continued:
"You see, it's this way. My chum and I did a little business in the
smuggling line last summer, and got chased for it by the 'beaks."'
"Just like 'em," growled the other.
"Yes," said Bonny, wrathfully. "We hadn't really done anything wrong,
you know; but they made us skip 'round lively, and came mighty near
catching us, too. We gave 'em the slip, though, and thought the whole
thing had blown over, till to-day, when they got after us again."
"Who did?"
"The revenue fellows. You see, the boss up at camp is one of 'em, and we
suspicioned something was wrong as soon as he told us we were wanted in
Tacoma. We were certain of it when we saw another revenue man, one of
the cutter's officers, join him on the train, and so we just gave them
the slip again, and have been hiding ever since over in that
freight-car."
"Indeed!" remarked the stranger, interestedly. "And what do you propose
to do next?"
"That's what I'm coming to, and what we want you to help us about. You
see, my chum's folks live in San Francisco, and I rather think he ran
away from 'em, though he hasn't ever said so. Anyhow, he wants to get
back there, and as we haven't any money, we've got to beat our way, so I
thought maybe you could put us up to the racket, or, at any rate, tell
us when the first south-bound freight would pull out. Of course, you
understand, we've got to start as quick as we can, for it isn't safe for
us to be seen around here."
"Of course not," agreed the stranger, with another chuckle; for the
whole affair seemed to amuse him greatly. "But what are you going to do
for food? You'll be apt to get hungry before long."
"I am already," acknowledged Bonny, "and that was another thing I was
going to ask you about. I thought maybe you wouldn't mind giving us some
pointers from your own experience in picking up your three little square
meals a day when you are on the road."
At this point the stranger burst into what began like uncontrollable
laughter, but which proved to be only a severe fit of coughing. When it
was over, he said: "Your name is Bonny Brooks, isn't it?"
"Yes; but don't speak so loud."
"All right, I won't. But, Bonny Brooks, you were mighty kind to me
yesterday--kinder than any one else has been for a long time.
By-the-way, did you bring my old hat with you?"
"No, of course not."
"No matter. I said I would redeem it, and I am going to do so by putting
you on to a mighty soft snap. I'm bound to the southward myself, and, as
it happens, there is a sort of boarding-car going to pull out of here
for somewhere down the line in about half an hour. It is in charge of
the cook, and as he and I are on what you might call extra good terms,
he is going to let me ride with him as far as he goes. There won't be a
soul on board but him and me, unless I can persuade him to let you two
boys come along with us. I am pretty sure I can, though, for he is under
several obligations to me, and if you'll promise to stay quietly in this
freight-car until I come for you, I'll go this minute and see him. What
do you say?"
"I say you are a trump, and if you'll only work that racket for us, I'll
share half the money with you that I'm to get from Rick as soon as we
reach San Francisco."
"Oh ho! He is to give you money, is he?"
"Yes; that is, he has promised me one hundred dollars to make up for the
wages I leave behind, if I'll only get him there. Of course that's all
his joke, though, for he is just as poor as I am."
So Bonny clambered back into the car where he told Rick of the fine
arrangement he had just made; while for the next half-hour that shabbily
attired stranger was the busiest man in Tacoma, and kept a great many
other people busy at the same time. Finally, just as the boys were
beginning to think he had forgotten them, he appeared at the door of the
freight-car, and said, in a loud whisper: "Come, quick. I think they are
after you."
As they scrambled out, he started on a run towards a single car that,
with an engine attached, stood on a siding in the darkest corner of the
railroad yard. Here he hurriedly whispered to the boys to crouch low on
its rear platform until it started, when the cook would open the door.
Then he disappeared.
In another minute the car began to move, and directly afterwards its
door was opened. There seemed to be no light in the interior, and,
without seeing any one, the boys heard a strange voice, evidently that
of a negro, bidding them come in out of the cold.
They entered the car, Alaric going first, and were led through a narrow
passage into what was evidently a large compartment. They heard their
guide retreating through the passage, and were beginning to feel rather
uneasy, when suddenly they were surrounded and dazzled by a great flood
of electric light.