CHAPTER XIVA 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.”
“THE CAPTAIN SAID WE WERE TO WAIT”“THE CAPTAIN SAID WE WERE TO WAIT”
“THE CAPTAIN SAID WE WERE TO WAIT”
“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 meshovel 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, almostas 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 theshanty, 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 feltas 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 toa 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!”