CHAPTER VIII.
A BLOCK IN THE WAY.
Ben was awakened from a sound sleep of many hours, by a rough thrust in the side.
"What's the matter, Hough?" he exclaimed, his scattered thoughts not having yet all returned from dreamland.
"I'll 'how' you, you scoundrel! Get out of this!" and another vigorous poke in the ribs with a barrel stave followed.
This last attack thoroughly aroused our friend, who awoke to find the car deserted by all save himself, while at the end gate appeared the face of a burly brakeman who was thus unceremoniously stirring him up with a stave.
"What is the matter?" asked Ben.
"Matter? The matter is that you'll get out of this pretty lively, or I'll come in there and throw you out!" cried he of the stave.
"Come in and try it," laconically replied our traveller.
The conductor, who was standing outside, watching his deputy's performance, asked the latter if any thing was the matter and if he needed help.
Now it so happened that the brakeman was what is known, in the language of the road, as a "bouncer." That is, he was a hybrid combining the qualities of a brakeman and a bruiser, and was frequently called into requisition by the conductor to take the dirty work of ejecting tramps off of his hands. So he replied to his chief that he needed no assistance, but would send him down a tramp in piecemeal in a few moments. With this he plunged through the end gate, intent on giving Ben a sound drubbing. But he reckoned without his host. Ben was a stout, sinewy, young fellow, and an excellent boxer, though his muscles lacked hardness. As the "bouncer" reached for his collar with one hand, while with the other he aimed a blow at his face, Ben gave him a trip accompanied by a stinging punch between the eyes that sent him sprawling to the floor; and with a knowledge of the work before him, brought his adversary down with smart raps three times successively, as the bully strove to regain his feet.
At this unexpected treatment the professional "bouncer" called loudly for help, and his chief, sliding back a side door, sprang to the rescue, also armed with a stave. When Ben, whose blood was now up, turned to face his new assailant, the "bouncer" regained his feet and stave, and aiming a vicious blow at Ben missed him, from the fact that the latter at that moment, by accident, stepped aside, and the stave brought the conductor a tremendous thwack on the side of his head. This so startled and enraged the latter, that howling with pain and maddened with the blood starting from a gashed cheek, he ignored Ben, and returned the "bouncer" his blow with interest, and in a moment the two were engaged in a give and take pitch battle.
Our hero was on the point of vacating the car, but noticing that the conductor, who was a small man, was about to get the worst of it, he turned, and seizing the "bouncer" by the collar hurled him through the open door, and followed himself, intent on renewing the battle outside, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by the majesty of the law in the shape of a policeman. Two other guardians of the peace attracted to the scene by the noise of the encounter, seized the conductor and brakeman, and the trio were marched off, followed by half a score of rail-roaders; the two damaged officials breathing fire and fury upon one another to the utter neglect of Ben. The officer in charge of our friend informed him that he was safely landed in the ancient town of Harrisburg, and that it was five o'clock.
Fortunately, as it ultimately proved, the police court was still in session, being engaged on special business. The prisoners were therefore immediately marched into the presence of a short, plethoric Milesian gentleman, who upheld the honors of the municipal bench.
No sooner did his eyes encounter the form of our friend than he called out:
"What! Here again, are yez! What did I tell yez the last time! Ye're here too often, that yez air. Do yez think the coort was made for your consumption? It's twinty dollars and costs, or sixty days in the lockup. Shut up! Every word out of yez will be sixty days more. What's the charges, officer?"
Poor Ben was dumbfounded. He was positive he had never met this vicious little magnate before in all his life, and did not know that the greeting he received was the august manner in which the blind goddess of the police court of Harrisburg struck terror into the hearts of those who had the misfortune to tread on the tail of her coat.
The preference of a hearing was given to the conductor and brakeman. Both had now secured legal assistance, and a charge of assault and battery was preferred by each against the other. Their cases were set for a future hearing, and both released on their own recognizance; when they immediately withdrew accompanied by their friends, entirely neglecting Ben, much to his gratification. All the officer who had arrested him could charge him with was being a vagrant caught in the vicinity of railroad property; which same is a serious enough petty offence along the line of the Central road.
The little judge asked him if he had any thing to say for himself, and immediately thereafter told him to "shut up!" He then went into a lengthy diatribe against tramps in general, and wound up by giving Ben sixty days in the workhouse.
Our traveller stood aghast! There was no provision in his wager about forcible detention, and he felt himself lost. Here then was an end to all his hopes and ambitions. From a tramp he was about to descend to the deeper degradation of a workhouse experience. The little justice must have noticed his consternation, for he smiled gleefully.
"Oye, that shuits yeztoo well, don't it?" he exclaimed. "Sixty days boord, lodgin' and washin' at the ixpinse av the county! Egad sor, it ud be foin! Chur foin, me lad, chur foin! Yez hid bate yer way an hundrid moils for the loike; so yez would! We'd have all the thramps in the country to kape, so we would, be gorra! Pater, is the walkin' good?" this last to a policeman.
"Yes, your Honor," answered Peter.
"Thin furnish this gintleman wid a good map av the county, and the coort will suspind sintince forwan hour! Nixt!"
An officer accompanied our friend to the door of the hall of justice, and bade him leave the city immediately; and the little judge shouted after him:
"Moind yez thramp, if yez air found in the city of Horrisbug sixty minutes from the prisint momint, Oil set yez chu studyin' geology wid a hammer for the binefit of the city strates for the remainder av the year. Now moind!"
Ben was so overjoyed with his freedom that the terrible words of this terrible little man were music in his ears. His first thought on regaining the street was to get out of town. His next one was to get on the railroad track and strike westward. He wondered what could have become of Tommy, and sadly missed his little companion.
To retrace our steps and account for his having been left alone in the car will not necessitate much of a digression. While Ben placidly slept the three tramps continued their game of "old-sledge" and their application to the bottle. They at last became so primed with the evil spirits in the latter, as to awake belligerent spirits of their own, and as the train drew into Harrisburg were engaged in a loud wrangle that was heard by employees in the yard, and they were consequently routed out of the car, and Tommy along with them. Ben, however, was overlooked, and his little friend viewing it as a stroke of good fortune in the sleeper's favor, thought to allow him to remain and ride through so far as he could alone. But the train had received orders to sidetrack in Harrisburg and await instructions, and while on the side track, Ben's snoring had attracted the attention of the conductor with the results already known to the reader.
Taking to the track as his surest and safest road, the sun was kissing earth good-night, when he left the city limits of Harrisburg behind him. He walked on at a brisk pace until twilight gathered its dusky arms about him and then found it necessary to go a little slower, as he was continually stumbling against the ties.
About three miles from the city he was met by two voyagers going east. These gentlemen of the foot-path informed him that they were on their way to Philadelphia, and had been "bounced" from a freight train some six miles back. Neither appeared to have any definite object in visiting Philadelphia, and were probably travelling on general principles, thinking they might as well be going there as any where. Their intention was to make Harrisburg and lodge in the police station; resuming their line of march in the morning.
These tramps were quite kind in supplying Cleveland with information relative to his route. They stated that the road was crowded with tramps, going in both directions, but the majority heading for the west. They also told him of several good "hang ups," in the way of barns and sheds, that with the eyes of experts they had noticed as they came along.
Ben lost no time in seeking a comfortable resting place and was soon asleep dreaming of two great, glorious, grey eyes that looked out sweetly upon him from the snowy folds of a nubia. Then, as he dreamed, the look in the grey eyes changed to one of sorrow, and they filled with tears. Anon a look of fright filled them, and the voice of the fair one called to him: "Save me Ben! Save me!"
And Ben crying out "I will!" sprang to his feet, and found, by Tommy's time piece—the Dipper—that he had slept nearly five hours.