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"Precisely," Westy said; "the same as somewhere is a place you get to, by going to it. Deny it if you can."
"Well, there's one place I'm going to," Connie said; "and that's asleep."
"If you don't mind, I'll go with you," Wig said.
I don't know how it is, but just before we turn in, we always have a lot of nonsense like that. I bet you think we're crazy. Pretty soon Westy and I were the only ones awake. He's so careful he never goes anywhere without thinking it over beforehand—not even to sleep. If he were going to go crazy, he'd have to think it all over beforehand and count ten first. Talk about watching your step; he has his chained. And he always remembers where he puts things, too. He never even loses his temper. I don't lose mine much, but gee whiz, I mislay it sometimes.
"This is a pretty wild country," Westy said; "it's all mountains. Do you hear the echo of the engine?"
Just as clear as could be, I could hear the sound of the engine echoing back from the mountains; the chugging and rattling sounded double, like. Then, pretty soon, it kind of died away.
After about half a minute, Westy and I just sat staring at each other, listening.
"That's funny," he said; "it seems to be going farther away."
"It sounds like the trains when you hear them at Temple Camp," I said.
He said, "That isn't our train, it's another train; it's over that way. We didn't hear it before, on account of ours."
I guess neither of us said anything for about half a minute, and all the while we could hear the rattling of the train, away off somewhere.
I said, "Westy, we're slowing down; it feels kind of funny; do you notice?"
"How?" he said.
"We're slowing down and there isn't any knocking of the cars against each other."
We both listened and all the while we could hear the rattling of a train far away.
"It feels just the same as it felt when we rolled down the siding," I said; "I don't know, kind of funny—easy like."
He opened the window and then shouted, "Look, look!This car's all alone. Look off there."
Away ahead of us, but a little over to one side, we could see a bright spot moving along and little bright dots in back of it. I knew it was the brightness thrown by a headlight and the lights showing through car windows. It wasourtrain scooting along around the mountains. Our car kept slowing down very easy sort of, as if there was nothing pulling it or holding it back either. I knew the feeling, because I had been on that car when it was like that before. It went slower and slower and slower and then the wheels sounded different—sort of hollow, kind of. Then the car just crawled along and at last it stopped.
"Look down," Westy said; "I can't see the ground. Do you hear water rushing?"
I looked out of the window and down, down, down, till I couldn't see anything but just the dark. But I could hear water way down there.
"We're on a high bridge," I said.
Just then the wind blew strong and it brought the noise of that train near again. And it shook the bridge, too, ever so little.
Westy said, "Roy, we're a couple of hundred feet up. You know just how the water in Black Gully sounds up near Temple Camp. That's over two hundred feet."
"What happened, do you suppose?" I asked him.
"Coupling broke, I guess," he said. "Let's have one of those lifters from the stove."
We dropped one of the iron lifters and listened to hear it fall. But all we could hear was a little splash, away far down.
"This bridge must be terribly high," Westy said; "feel how it shakes in the wind."
"This is a dickens of a spooky place to be," I told him; "especially in a strong wind."
"You said it," Westy answered.
Gee whiz, I've often felt kind of shaky goingover a high bridge in a train, but to be left standing in the middle of one;oh, boy!
"Let's go and see what happened," he said.
We got the red lantern from the back platform of the car and went through to the other platform and held it down. There was nothing at all beneath us, except ties very far apart, and the rails and the heavy steel runners outside the rails. The coupling was broken, all right. I guess that coupling must have been an old timer.
"Hang the lantern on the rail," Westy said, "while I get down and see what happened."
"Look out what you're doing," I said; "there's two or three hundred feet of space below you. Watch your step."
He lay on the platform so as to be able to reach down and look down where the coupling was, and find out just what had happened.
"Hold the light down," he said.
Gee, I can't tell you just how it happened. Westy says he was to blame and I say I was to blame. He said he knocked the lantern out of my hand, but, gee whiz, I should have kept it out of his way. Anyway, it went tumbling down and it went so far that it looked like just a little red speck. It stayed lighted till it crashed away downin the bottom of that place. And the light turned yellow and spread a little bit, then went out. I guess the oil spilled on a rock down there. Anyway, it looked like miles.
Westy was breathing hard and I guess I was, too. He said, "Have you got that time table? What time did our conductor say that train from Buffalo comes through?"
I said, "About midnight. We're in a pretty bad fix. I guess I'd better wake the fellows up, hey?"
We were both pretty serious.
I guess you know that was an old out-of-date car, because anyone would know that the railroad people wouldn't use a good car to stand on a side track for a makeshift station. Gee whiz, we didn't care about that, we even liked it, because it was old-fashioned and kind of ramshackle; it made it seem like a good place for camping. And if it hadn't been for that old stove in the corner of it, we could never have bunked in it and cooked our meals. Crinkums, I like old things, but not old worn-out couplings. Nay, nay!
Another thing, the only lights in that car were three lamps along the top, but they weren't exactly lights, because the lamps were broken. Just the brass things were there. There was just one good lamp in a side bracket in the ticket agent's place, and when we started away from Brewster's Centre that was full of oil. But we used it all up on Saturday night in Ridgeboro and we couldn'tget any at the store the next day, on account of it being Sunday. We were going to get some on Monday morning, but you see we were picked up Sunday night. So now the only light we had was a little flashlight belonging to Connie Bennett.
I said, "Westy, this is the worst fix we were ever in. I never thought about anything like this when I said it was a lot of fun being pulled all over the country in this car. Feel how the bridge shakes in the wind; it's kind of spooky like, hey? If it only wasn't so dark. That makes it worse, not being able to see where you are at all. Listen, do you hear a train?"
"Nope," he said, all the while listening; "I guess it's just because you're scared."
"Anyway, there's no use wasting time," I told him; "let's wake up the fellows."
That was some job. We had to roll Pee-wee off the seat onto the floor and then roll him out into the aisle. I guess they didn't know what we were talking about first, but when they knew about it, they sat up all right. We just sat there talking in the pitch dark.
"What good is the flashlight?" Connie asked us. "It won't show far enough and the batterywon't hold out for more than about a half an hour. I hear a train now."
No one said a word; just listened. "I heard that," Westy said; "it isn't a train."
"One is likely to crash into us any minute," Wig said; "I'd rather jump and be done with it—the suspense."
"Do you call that using your brains?" Pee-wee shouted. Gee whiz, when you come right down to it, I have to admit that kid is a bully little scout.
"You couldn't walk the ties even if we could," Wig said; "you can't take a long enough step."
"Well, then,youwalk them and I'll stay here," the kid said.
I reached across in the dark and hit him a good rap on the shoulder. "That shows there's one thing about scouting you don't know, Kiddo," I told him. "A scout troop is just as strong as its weakest member, just the same as a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Wewilluse our brains, right up to the last minute. Don't get scared."
We all listened to a sound we heard far off.
"I'm not scared," Pee-wee said. And even in the dark I could see his eyes looking straight atme and they looked awful brave and clear, kind of.
"No use getting excited," Wig said. "Why couldn't we break up some wood and start a fire a few feet away from the car?"
"Listen!" Connie said; "shh——"
"Maybe it would stop a train, but it would surely burn the bridge down," Westy said. "The ties are wooden. There's enough wood to curl the steel all up into a mess of wreckage. And all that might happen before the train came along."
"Could we walk the ties?" Wig asked. "Even if they're far apart we might help Pee-wee——Listen!"
"Don't be all the time scaring me," I said, kind of mad, like. Because I was getting good and scared, and rattled. "Let's see your light, Connie."
I held the light to the time table. "There's no station anywhere around here, I guess," I said; "but that flyer ought to come along pretty soon——"
"I hear it now," Wig said.
"No, you don't," I told him; "what's the use of getting us all excited? Sit still. If it comesalong, all we can do is to go out and lie flat on the ties and trust to luck. Any fellow that wants to hang by his hands, can do it. It would be pretty hard lifting ourselves up again though. But the flyer isn't coming yet."
"I hear a whistle," Wig said.
"No, you don't hear a whistle," I told him; "that's an owl down there in the woods. Don't you know the call of an owl?"
"How about freight trains?" Connie asked.
I said, "I don't know anything about freight trains; they're not on the time table. Of course, we're up against it, but what's the use of going all to pieces? If any fellow wants to try walking the ties, he can do it. It would be hard enough in the daytime. On a dark night like this, he'd just go crashing down into all those rocks and water, that's all. Maybe the chances are against us, but I say, let's stick together."
"That's what I say," Pee-wee shouted; "we've always stuck together. I saystick together."
"Bully for you, Kid," I said.
"We had a lot of fun anyway," he said; "and I always voted for you for patrol leader. I'm not scared."
I got up, because I just couldn't sit there anymore. Every time the wind blew and the car rattled, it gave me a start. I put my arm over Pee-wee's shoulder and I said, "I've jollied you a lot, Walt."
"I don't mind that," he said; "and besides, a scout is brave."
"You're a better scout than any of us, I guess," I told him.
Then I went out onto the platform, because I just couldn't keep still. I remembered what Connie had said about all the men that lose their lives working on railroads. Anyway, Pee-wee was right, we had had a lot of fun. I guess we never thought about the other side of it. I looked away down into the dark and I could just hear the water splashing on the rocks. I had to grab hold of the railing when the wind blew. I looked away off along the tracks, but I couldn't even see where the bridge ended; only I could see a kind of a big patch of dark that was blacker than the regular dark, and I thought it was a mountain. I guessed maybe a headlight would show suddenly around that. Connie came out, but didn't say anything, and then went back through to the other platform. I could hear frogs croaking, away down.
"Going to watch?" I called after him.
He said, "We're going to hang from the ties when we hear it."
"All right," I told him; "it's awful dark. I can't see a thing."
I heard one of the fellows inside say that maybe the wind would start the car, but I knew that was crazy talk, because a bridge is always level. I made up my mind that I'd hang from one of the ties and clasp my hands around it. I knew that it would be hard pulling myself up and scrambling onto the bridge again;allof us wouldn't manage it, that was sure. It seemed kind of funny that probably we wouldn't have a full patrol any more. I wasn't exactly scared but, kind of, I didn't like to hear those frogs croaking way down there. It sounded so spooky.
I heard Westy say, "So long, Roy, if I don't see you again."
I called in for him to keep the kid near him. He was always my special chum, Westy was....
All of a sudden, somebody was standing near me on the platform and clutching my arm. It was Pee-wee.
"Look out you don't fall, Kid," I told him.
"I didn't tell any of them," he whispered. "Listen, I've got an idea. I was—all the while I was trying to use my brains. But anyhow, I don't know just how we can do it, but you can find a way, so then really it'll beyouridea. Shh—I want the fellows to think it's your idea; see? Shh! Why can't we use the movie apparatus, some way; why can't we? And flash it to them."
"You said it!" I fairly yelled.
"Shh—h," he whispered; "I always voted for you; listen, it'syouridea, see? Because I don't know just how——"
Oh, boy, I just grabbed that kid around the neck, till I could feel his curly head right tight close to me.
"What should I 'shh' about?" I shouted. "You little brick! What are you whispering about?Pee-wee's hit it!" I just fairly shouted. "We're all right. Get in the car," I yelled at him, and I gave him a push. "Telling your patrol leader to shut up, are you?"
Then I called him back again, I just couldn't help it, and I grabbed him around the neck and I just held him that way.
"Youbully,tip-toplittle scout," I said; "you—you little Silver Fox! You—you've saved all of us."
"And we canalwaysstick together, hey?" he said.
"Sure,—oh, sure," I told him; "you bet!"
Gee whiz, all we needed was the idea. All the rest of the ideas came to us quick enough.
"There's oil in the movie lamp," Wig yelled.
"Break one of the windows," I said; "quick."
"What for?"
"Never mind what for. Get a piece of glass," I hollered. "Pick out two long sticks—hurry up."
It didn't take us long to decide just how we'd do.
"Twolongones," I said; "don't be listening for trains."
Crash went a window. "I've got a good piece," Pee-wee yelled.
"All right, blacken it with the movie lamp," I told him.
Oh, boy, we were some busy crew. The wood that had been nailed up under the car in Brewster's Centre was in long strips, and we hauled a couple of the longest ones out double quick. It wasn't exactly my idea, what we did; it was all of our ideas, I guess. We planned it out while we were hustling.
One of those long strips we stuck out of the window and then held it up outside. One end of it was inside the car, resting on the seat, and the other end pointed up as straight as we could hold it outside. It reached up past the roof. Two of us held it that way, while two others did the same thing with another one through the window just opposite. So you see those two long strips stuck up, one on either side of the roof. They didn't stand up straight on account of sticking down through the windows, but they slanted away from each other up above. It took four of us to hold them that way.
facing150SPRAWLING RIGHT ACROSS THAT SHEET WAS THE WORDSTOP.Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels.Page150
SPRAWLING RIGHT ACROSS THAT SHEET WAS THE WORDSTOP.Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels.Page150
While we were doing that, Pee-wee had the little movie lamp turned up so it smoked and he held the piece of glass over it until it was all black with soot. Pee-wee was all black with soot, too. A scout is thorough. In two minutes more, I guess, he would have been disguised as a negro.
"Turn it down," I said; "that's enough. Are you game to climb up on the car? Get the sheet and the rope, quick."
Pee-wee was game for anything. You never saw him back down, did you? Not even—but never mind. That's a thing of the past. In five seconds that little monkey was up on top of the car with the screen cloth and the rope that we always used to hang it from. I called up out of the window for him to look out.
"I don't see any trains," he shouted down.
"I mean look out for yourself," I said. "Tie the rope across from one stick to the other as high as you can reach," Wig shouted; "and be careful when you stand up."
"That's nothing," Pee-wee shouted.
In less than half a minute the sticks stood up all right without being held, and we knew that they were tied together and bent enough toward each other so that they would stand up good and solid. Then we told him to sit down, because we didn'twant him standing and reaching up to fix the sheet.
"I'll go up," I said.
When I got up on the roof, Pee-wee and I hooked the sheet to the rope all the way across and tied it to the sticks at the bottom, so it wouldn't blow. Then we dangled the end of rope down past the window just below, and the fellows tied the movie apparatus to it, and we hauled it up. There was a kind of a tank lying flat on the roof and fastened tight, and we stood the apparatus close against that, and kept close to it ourselves to keep from slipping and falling off. Jiminies, I've heard of tramps riding on the tops of cars like that, but believe me, I wouldn't want to be on the top of one while it was going.
With my little finger I printed the word STOP in good big black letters on the smoked glass.
"Listen," Pee-wee said; "shh; do you hear a train?"
I listened. "I guess it's just the fellows down in the car," I said. "Have you got matches?"
"I've got four pockets full of them," he said. Even then I had to laugh. A scout is thorough.
"Listen," he said; "I think it's a train."
Away off I could hear a rattling sound, very low and quick—tkd,tkd,tkd,tkd,tkd,tkd,tkd,tkd; then all of a sudden a long, shrill whistle. And I could hear it again, very low, echoing from the mountains.
"She's coming!" Connie shouted up.
"We should worry," I hollered down.
But just the same my hand trembled as I put the piece of glass into the apparatus, and held it there in place.
There wasn't any sign of light anywhere, the cloth stayed as dark as pitch.
"What's the matter?" Pee-wee asked, all breathless.
"It doesn't work," I said. I could hardly speak, and cold shudders were going all through me.
Away far off, there came a big patch of light on one of the mountains, so that we could even see the trees off there. It was from the headlight of a locomotive that we couldn't see yet. I guess it was coming around the mountain.
"All right?" Westy called up out of the window.
"It doesn't work, Westy," I said.
I could hardly speak, my throat felt so queer, sort of.
"Did you take the cap off?" Westy called up. Thoughtful little Westy!
"G—o—o—d night," I said; "I never took the cap off the lens cylinder."
"Maybe that was the reason," Pee-wee said, in that innocent way of his.
"It's just possible," I said.
I took off the cap and, oh,Christopher Columbus, wasn't I happy! Sprawling right across that sheet was the word STOP in good big letters. Believe me, that was my favorite word. STOP. It showed far enough in both directions for an engineer to see it in time to come to a full stop.
"Will they see it?" Pee-wee asked me, all excited.
"If the engineer isn't dead, he'll see it," I told him.
"Maybe we ought to have saidplease, hey? Ascout is supposed to be polite," he said. I just had to sit back and laugh, right there on the roof of that car. Cracky, but that kid is a scream.
One funny thing was that from the train the word would show wrong side around. It would show the right way from one direction and the wrong way from the other direction.
"It will read POTS," I said.
"Maybe he won't stop, hey?" the kid asked me.
"Sure he will," I said; "how does he know how big the pots are? It will knock him silly when he sees that."
Even beyond the screen, away over against a hill, we could see the word POTS printed very dim and small. Only the P was wrong side around.
But anyway, safety first; so I kept moving the glass so the word danced around. An engineer who couldn't have seen that must have been blind.
Pretty soon, along she came, and we could see the headlight now, good and clear, and hear her thundering along as if she should worry about anything.Rattle,bang, she went, and roaring and clanking as if she'd be glad to trample the whole world down and never even stop to take notice.Slam,bang, she came along, and we could see the mountains as plain as day, brightened up by her headlight.
I just held the glass, moving it around, and I have to admit I was a little kind of nervous, sort of.
Slam bang, slam bang!She came along and we could hear the rattling and clanking echoing from the mountains, and the racket was all mixed up. Sparks of light were flying up out of the smokestack and we could hear the rails clanking, clanking....
Then the sound of the clanking changed. Then it died down, and there was only the steady rattle, rattle....
She was slowing down.
"We've got her, Kid," I said; "sit still, you'll only fall off. We've got her eating out of our hands."
"Clank, clank, clank—clank—clank," she went; then "s-s-s-s-s-s...."
She had stopped.
There she stood, puffing and puffing, part on the bridge, and part back in the dark. The locomotive seemed like a big lion that had just been going to spring at us.
"Hurrah!" we heard the fellows down in the car calling.
"P-f-f-f-f-f-f," the locomotive went.
"Letmedo it! Letmedo it!" Pee-wee yelled.
I took the piece of glass out and leaned back against the tank. All of a sudden I saw something else sprawled all over the sheet. It was the right way around, too, for the engineer. I guess Pee-wee had been carrying it in his pocket. Anyway, there were spots on it where the soot had been wiped off. But it was easy to read it, and this is what it said:
MUCH OBLIGED, MISTER
Honest, can you beat that kid?
I guess the fellows down in the car must have seen the notice where it was printed kind of faint like, against a hill, because they couldn't have seen it on the screen. Anyway, they set up a howl and began shouting up out of the windows. They're a crazy bunch.
"Show them Pee-wee peeling potatoes! Show them Pee-wee flopping flip-flops!" they began yelling.
"Show them the one of me stirring soup," the kid said, grabbing me by the arm; "that's the best one!"
I said, "You crazy Indian, do you think those people in the flyer are there to see a movie show? Keep still, here come a couple of men with lanterns."
"They're going to penetrate the mystery," Pee-wee said. I guess he got that out of some book, hey?Penetrate the mystery.
I said, "As long as they didn't penetrate this car, I'm satisfied."
We could see two lights bobbing along toward us from the train. Even with lanterns it must have been a pretty risky job, walking those ties. All the while Pee-wee and I were taking down the sheet, and as soon as we loosened it from the sticks, the fellows down in the car pulled them in.
"Look how clear it shows against the hill, now the sheet isn't up," I said to Pee-wee.
I guess you know what I meant, all right. Even through the sheet the printing had shown kind of dim against a hill in back of the train, but with the sheet taken down it showed pretty clear and it seemed awful funny. And besides, now that the sheet was down we had a good look at the train; the light from the movie apparatus seemed to shine right along the tops of the cars.
All of a sudden, Pee-wee grabbed me by the arm and said, "Look!Look!On the top of the second car. Look! Do you see? Right beside that long sort of a boiler thing."
I looked, and then, for once, I had sense enough to do the right thing in a hurry. I closed the shutter in the apparatus.
"Did you see them?" Pee-wee whispered, all excited.
"Sure," I said; "two men."
They were lying on the top of the car, right close against a big, long thing like a boiler. It was much bigger than the thing on our car. One was lying on one side of it, and the other one on the opposite side. The reason I shut the light off in such a hurry was because I didn't want them to know they were seen.
"Are they train robbers?" Pee-wee whispered to me. "Are they highwaymen?"
"They're high enough to be highwaymen," I told him.
"Maybe they're bandits, hey?" he said.
"I hope so, for your sake," I told him. "I hope they're a couple of pirates, but I guess they're only tramps. Come on, let's go down."
We dangled the movie apparatus down and the fellows took it in through the window. Then they came out on the platform and helped the kid and me down. That was a pretty hard job, believeme. Just as wegotour feet on terra what d'ye call it.—I mean terra cotta[A]—that Latin for platform—anyway, you know what I mean—assoon as we got our two feet (I mean four feet) on the platform, the two men with lanterns had just reached it.
One of the men said, "What's all this? What are you doing here, anyway? Who are you?" Gee whiz, it sounded like an examination paper.
Whenever we get mixed up with grown-up people it's usually me—I meanI—that has to do the talking. Pee-wee usually helps though. So I gave the men our regular motto.
I said, "We're here because we're here. Ask me something easy. This is the Comedy of Errors." I said that because we have the Comedy of Errors in school and I just happened to think of it.
I guess the man was the fireman; anyway, he had on a jumper. He walked into the car and looked all around with his lantern and the other man looked all around, too, trying to size us up, I guess.
The fireman said, "Comedy of Errors, huh?"
Pee-wee said, "Sure, that's in Shakespeare."
"Well, it's mighty gol darn lucky you had a movie machine along," the fireman said. "You youngsters have had amighty narrowescape."
"Why shouldn't it be a narrow escape?" Connie said. "It's a narrow bridge. Anyway, where do we go from here?"
"There's a couple of men lying on the top of one of your cars, too," Pee-wee said; "we could see them by the light."
"Tramps, I guess," the brakeman said. He didn't seem to be surprised.
So then we told them all about how it was with us—our adventures with the car and all that. They said we had a bad coupling and that it was no wonder it had parted.
"We should worry," I told him; "scouts stick together, even if couplings part. But anyway, we'd like to get off this bridge."
The fireman said it wouldn't be a bad idea.
FOOTNOTE:
[A]He probably meant terra firma.
[A]He probably meant terra firma.
Pretty soon they went back to the train and then, after about ten minutes, the engine began puffing and coming toward us ever so slow. It seemed as if it hardly moved.
"I think we're going to get a good bunk in the nose," Wig said.
"Good night," I told him; "I hope it doesn't pick up speed."
"I'd rather see it pick up anything than that," Connie said.
"Suppose it had hit us at full speed," Pee-wee said.
"It would have been a home run all right," I told him.
Even with that locomotive just creeping along toward us, it scared me. It seemed as if it couldn't touch our car without banging it into splinters. But that engineer knew what he was doing all right. The train came along so slowly you couldhardly tell it was moving, and sometimes it stopped and started again. Pee-wee said it was going scout pace. But it was more like a snail's pace, I guess.
Pretty soon it stopped just about ten feet from us and the headlight brightened up the whole car. I could feel the bridge tremble a little, sort of keeping time with that great big locomotive, as it stood there puffing and just kind of throbbing. And I thought how all that engineer would have to do was pull a handle and—g—o—o—dnight! He was sitting, looking out of the window, sort of calm and easy, smoking a pipe. Connie called up to him and said, "Hey, Mister, have a heart and don't start anything." The engine just went, "pff,pff,pff," very slow. We could even feel the heat of it.
Somebody called out for us to get inside the car and stay there. A man went through our car with a red lantern and kept swinging it on the other platform. I could see men swinging red lights way in the back of the train, too. Some people on the train tried to get out, but the railroad men made them get on again. I could hear a lady crying that there was going to be a bad collision. Cracky, I never heard of a good one, did you?
The men between the front of the engine and our car had a long iron bar, sort of, and they had one end of it fixed in a sort of coupling just above the cow-catcher. It was pretty hard keeping us off the platform, so we saw everything they did. The other end of that bar they held up so it stuck out like a shaft, and then the engine moved about an inch, then stopped, then moved about another inch, then stopped. Gee whiz, I was glad I wasn't down there with those men.Yum,yum, I like sandwiches, but I don't like being the middle part of one. Then all of a sudden,bunk.
The men climbed up on our car and in a minute, chu chu, along we went ever so slow, the engine pushing us.
When we were off the bridge, the train stopped and the men on the other end of our car went away along the tracks, swinging their lanterns. Gee, it's all right to say a bridge is strong, and I guess that one was, all right, but me for the good solid earth. It feels good underneath you.
Pretty soon the conductor and a lot of passengers came along to take a look at us. What didwecare? Everybody said we werewondersto think about using the movie apparatus and they were laughing. I guess it was at the wordpots,hey? One man said we were prenominal,[B]or something or other like that—I should worry.
Pretty soon we noticed a little crowd of people outside the second car, so we went up that way to see what was the matter. A couple of men were just coming down off the platform and each of them was holding a man by the collar. The men they were holding had on scout hats. I took one look andg—o—o—dnight! Those two fellows were the automobile thieves.
"What—do—you—know—about—that?" Connie whispered to me.
"And the train people never knew they were up there until we told them," Westy said.
I guess the two men were detectives. Anyway, just as they stepped off, they let go the one man and one of them said, "Now you two hoboes beat it, and the next time either of you is caught riding on this road, you'll do time for it There's the road——"
Jiminetty!I didn't wait for him to say any more. I just went right up to that detective and I said, "Mister, those men are worse than tramps; they're not tramps at all; they're thieves; they stole an automobile; hurry up, you'd better catch him."
Oh, boy, didn't he grab hold of that fellow again! The fellow must have seen some of us, because he was just starting to run when, zippo, that detective had him by the collar again. The other one hadn't been let go even, so he was safe.
By that time passengers from the train were crowding around and Pee-wee was right in the center, shouting, same as he always does. "They're—they're desperate—culprits——" he said; "wefoiledthem once before—we did——"
All the passengers were laughing. Even the conductor and the detectives were laughing. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't speak.
He just shouted on, "You can say what you want about robbers and bandits and—and all things like that being bad—in the movies—but anyway, I don't care how many censors there are—you've got to admit that the movies are all right—they can—what d'ye call it—they can reveal identities, they can——"
Then Westy spoke up. He said, "This is our little mascot; he's harmless." Then he told all about how our car was stalled on the road and how the thieves got away. Westy always has his wits about him when he talks, that's one thing.
One of the detectives said, "Can you boys positively identify this pair?"
"Haven't they got our hats?" I said. "Sure we can identify them."
The two thieves looked at us as if to try to scare us, but what didwecare? They made a big fuss and said they were only tramps, but it didn't do them any good, and nobody believed them. Because all those people could see we knew what we were talking about, especially Westy, because he's always so sober, like. And besides, they knew that we were the ones who had first discovered them on top of the car, and I guess they saw that we had some sense, because on account of our flashing the signal in that way.
Anyway, you can bet those two fellows didn't get away. The men took them into the baggage car and that was the last we saw of them, because after the train started we had to stay in our own car, on account of the engine being between us and the train. That was the only thing that kept Pee-wee from giving a movie show.
But the fireman came in to see us, because he knew how to climb all over the engine. He told us that those fellows had handcuffs on, and he got all our names and addresses, because he said we'dhave to come back and be witnesses. But we never did, because the fellows confessed. Gee whiz, I would have liked to go back again. Maybe it wouldn't have been so much fun though, hey? I guess maybe I wouldn't have liked to. It's no fun seeing people sent to jail. But anyway, one sure thing, they had no right to steal a Pierce-Arrow. Even they wouldn't have had any right to steal a Ford.
But anyway, who'd want to steal a Ford?
FOOTNOTE:
[B]Phenomenal is probably what the man said.
[B]Phenomenal is probably what the man said.
So you have to admit that there were two thieves that really got caught in the movies. Mr. Ellsworth says that movies with thieves and robbers and pistols and things are no good. But if it hadn't been for that movie outfit, good night, where would we have been, I'd like to know? And where would those thieves have been?
Anyway, pretty soon the excitement was all over, except that Pee-wee kept things going. Nothing but an earthquake would stophim. It was pretty bright in our car on account of the headlight from the engine. We moved along so slowly that I guess I could walk just as fast. The fireman paid us a good visit. He was an awful nice fellow. He could bend his left thumb way back. He said he would be an engineer pretty soon. Jiminy, I hope he's one by now.
He told us that the engineer was going to push us as far as Flimdunk Siding and leave us thereand that another train would pick us up the next day. He said both our couplings were rusted out and no good and one of them would have to be fixed before we could be taken on.
He said, "We can't push you far like this; 'tisn't safe and we have to just crawl."
"Flimdunk suitsusall right," I told him; "we're not particular. Columbus didn't know where he was going anyway, and to-morrow's Columbus Day. We should worry."
He said he guessed Number 23 would pick us up.
"Good night!" I told him, "that means more adventures. I suppose that's the skiddo special. Probably we'll be dumped off a cliff. All in the game."
He laughed and said that probably we wouldn't have any more trouble, because Number 23 made a quick run straight to Jersey City.
"What does it want to go to Jersey City for?" Wig asked him.
He said, "Well, it doesn't stay there long."
"I don't blame it," Connie piped up.
He told us that when we got to Jersey City a Northern local would pick us up and drop us at Bridgeboro.
"All right, just as you say," I told him.
Anyway, we weren't going to worry about it. When we got home we'd get home, that was all. And when we didn't, we wouldn't.
After the fireman went away, we fixed two seats facing each other and sprawled all over them. I guess we were getting pretty sleepy.
"Shout to the engineer to turn off that headlight and we'll go to sleep," Wig said.
"Let's make some turnovers first," Pee-wee said.
"All right,youmake them," I said.
Then followed a big chunk of silence.
All of a sudden Connie started singing: