A FIRST RIDE ON THE RAILWAY
“Come in by!” at last said the man in the doorway.
The children silently accepted the invitation and entered a bare little
room, to be instantly startled by a yell of dismay from their new host:
“Injuns! Injuns! Apaches! The Saints!”
“We are not Indians!” retorted Carlos, indignantly.
“Och! is it so?” gasped the man, much relieved. “But it’s wearin’ their
clo’es ye are. Did they catch ye and rig yez like that? And did thim
soldiers catch ye back out of ’em?”
Despite his roughness, the man had a simple and timid speech, and the
boy replied by a brief account of their adventures, ending with the
question:
“What are you going to do with us now?”
“As sure as me name’s Dennis Fogarty, that thing I don’t know.”
“Do you live here?”
“Live, is it? Faith, nobody lives nowhere in this haythenish land.”
As no reply followed this assertion, Dennis strengthened it by adding:
“It’s livin’ I’ve not done since I left Connemara, an’ that’s the
truth I’m tellin’ ye. This station of ‘Leopard’ has give up. The folks
what run it has moved on a peg, to the station beyant. ’Tis with them
I stays when I stays anywhere. But it’s mostly workin’ the track all
alone I am, barrin’ Mike Grady and a hansel o’ ‘Greasers’, to help.
It’s lonesome as sin, so it is. Moreover--”
Of his own accord, there seemed no prospect of Dennis’s pausing, so
Carlota interrupted:
“The Captain said we were to wait at the station till we were called
for by our father. Is this all the place there is?”
“Stay here, is it? All by your lone?”
“I--don’t--know. Is it the railroad? Are those shiny things outside the
rails? Do the trains come to-night?”
“Sure, yourself is a girrul, now ain’t ye? By the questions ye put all
to once. Let’s take ’em in turn an’ find out.”
[Illustration: “THE CAPTAIN SAID WE WERE TO WAIT”]
The face of the lonely track-walker now shone with delight at his
company and, as soon as he had heard Carlota speak, he recognized that
she belonged to a higher social class than his own. He pulled his
forelock when he addressed her and his manner was both respectful and
protecting.
“Is it the railroad? ’Tis that same. Are the rails the rails? They be.
Do the trains come to-night? Why not? Same’s every other. But it’s not
for a train I do be waitin’. As I was a-sayin’, the folks that lives
here doesn’t. They’ve moved down to the next station on ‘Tuttle,’
more by token there’s more good wather for fillin’ the ingines an’
drinkin’, whilst here the bottom’s dropped out. Was a well sunk, one o’
thim artaysians, same’s all down the track, yet somethin’ or ’nother
pumps it out down below, as fast as it fills an’ faster. So, says the
Superintendent, says he, to Misther Burnham, says he: ‘Take the traps
of your misthress an’ childer’ an’ go there,’ says he. So they went, a
week maybe; an’ ’twas I just stepped back here, the night, to look for
me shovel that’s lost. I’m abidin’ a hand-car will be along, by and
by; an’ I’m thinkin’ how Mike’ll be starin’ at a couple o’ Injuns, for
passengers on it.”
“But we must stay here, right here. The Captain talked a deal about
‘Obedience,’ and his orders were: ‘Stay.’ So we must,” said Carlota,
firmly.
“But, sister, there is nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep!” protested
Carlos, who had not himself been “lectured.”
“There is the floor. And we can find something to eat--to-morrow. We
need only just sleep, till then.”
“An’ it’s not here ye’ll try it!” returned Dennis, indignantly. “What’s
a Captain more nor a man?”
“He’s a soldier. A gentleman. He knows.”
“He knows nought. He isn’t the ‘Super’, is he? He hasn’t the charge o’
the railroad same as of soldiers an’ Injuns.”
The discussion was closed by a rumbling sound, which grew steadily
louder, and made Carlota clasp her brother’s hand. He, also, looked
toward Dennis with a new fear, almost as great as her own, till he saw
the trackman’s face beaming with satisfaction.
“There she comes, alanna! An’ I’m mindin’ the face o’ Mike, me friend,
when I trots the pair of ye out an’ he sees ye, first off. Here’s me
shovel--that’s right; an’ me pick, that I’ll maybe need an’ maybe no.
Ye see, it’s up an’ down the road I goes an’ it’s botherin’ to know
where’s handiest to be leavin’ me tools. Howiver--step out lively now,
whilst I shuts to the door.”
“Who is ‘she’? And I must not go, nor must Carlos!” declared Carlota,
with decision.
“Sharrucks! Out with ye, ye purty, silly girleen! Stay here, is it,
alone? To be scalped by the murderin’ Injuns? An’ is Dennis me name?
Out with ye. Be a duck of a colleen an’ bother no more. It’s the car,
I tell yez, an’ she’s all but come to the door. I’m thinkin’ it may be
the worse for us all if we hinder her, for ’tis a single track an’ big
Number Nine’s about due. If we’re to meet up with a bed this blessed
night, it’s be ready we must when Mike slows her up.”
Carlota shrieked and darted back toward the shanty, for at that moment
there came into sight a low, rapidly moving thing which seemed to
threaten them with instant destruction. But Dennis slipped his strong
arm around her, saying:
“Sure, little misthress, ’tis nought but a hand-car will take us to
supper an’ bed. Fear nought, fear nought.”
“Is it far to this ‘Tuttle’ place?” asked Carlos, now more excited than
alarmed.
“A matter of a dozen mile, belike. Hi! Here she be! Hello, Mike!”
“Hello, Dennis! Who’s them?”
“Injuns! Didn’t ye hear them Apaches was makin’ fresh trouble the now?”
“Quit foolin’, man! If ’twas redskins ye’d got, ’tisn’t Dennis
Fogarty’d stand there, grinnin’ that gait. On with ye and your company,
wherever they come from. I’m long behind an’ Number Nine overdue,”
returned the other, not easily duped.
Then Carlota was swung to the little platform car, her brother beside
her, and the men were working the handles which propelled it over the
rails. For a moment or two, the children felt as if they were being
hurled to ruin; then the sensation of flying exhilarated them, and they
cautiously looked about them.
“Isn’t--it--wonderful! Will it--run off--the rails?” whispered Carlota.
But nobody heard her; though a little later Carlos put down his head
and halloed in her ear:
“I should like to ride like this--forever!”
She did not answer, save by an ecstatic squeeze of his hand. Then all
at once, she caught sight of a dark object lying on the ground, which
they whizzed past and left behind. After another short distance, a
similar, uncanny, motionless body; and her heart sank drearily. These
were the carcasses of dead cattle which had been too ignorant to get
out of the way, had been slain by passing trains. In fresh terror she
hid her face on her brother’s breast and waited for her own direful
end. Then on and on, till it seemed she could not endure the agony of
suspense, and thought:
“I’d rather be killed quick--quick--than wait--this way!”
But, at last, with a little jerk the car came to a standstill and
Dennis cheerily called out:
“Misthress Burnham! Hello, Jack! Go tell your mother, lad, to come see
the fine present I’m after bringin’ her. A pair of young papooses, to
be raised along with yez all!”