Читать книгу Westy Martin on the Santa Fe Trail - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 5

Table of Contents

It was quite late and the usual hum and buzz of masculine voices in the smoking room were missing. The train went screeching through the dark, rainy night, indifferent to all else save the purpose of its own mission in life.

Westy and Rip were sitting opposite one another, trying to penetrate the inky blackness outside the dripping window panes. Nothing but a shroud of blackness covered the earth. They gave it up.

“Gee, I’ll be glad to walk on the ground again,” Rip said, breaking the silence.

“Here, too,” agreed Westy. “Morning can’t come quick enough to suit me.”

Mr. Wilde, occupying the seat with them, laid down the book he had been reading and grinned genially.

“Getting kind of restless, eh, kids?”

“I’ll say we are!” said Rip, spokesman for the two. “Do we hoof it very much, Unk, after we leave this ring-tailed roarer in the morning?”

“Somewhat. I dare say you’ll both have enough walking by the time we’re ready to come back. We are to start out from a place called Wakarusa. Outfit will be all ready for us to get away at once. No waiting, thank goodness.”

“Outfit?” queried Rip. “What’s this going to be, Unk; another covered wagon affair?”

“Not so’s you’ll ever notice it. Catch you modern kids traveling in a covered wagon. With all that either of you have learned about scouting I’d like to see what you’d do with the few necessities that the old pioneers had to do with in the days on the Old Trail.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Westy protested. “Uncle Jeb gave me a lot of dope that I could use in a tight pinch. We could do a lot if we had to, eh, Rip?”

“Betcha life,” he replied airily. “We could show some of these modern pikers a thing or two.”

It is to be seen that when it came to getting on the defensive side of scouting, Westy and Rip pledged a momentary truce and became kindred spirits, to Mr. Wilde’s enjoyment. He was having the time of his life kidding them.

“All right, scouts, I hope you will get the chance to show me then some day. But I am afraid you’re going to be disappointed on this trip if you’ve been looking forward to anything more exciting than shooting the scenery. I gave my solemn promise to both your parents that I’d keep the watchful eye all over. When we get back home you and Westy can give me a few exhibitions of your skill and prowess in the back-to-nature bunk in Martin’s back yard.”

This was adding insult to injury of course, but neither of them could make a come-back. Mr. Wilde could see by their expressions that the parental promise hadn’t made a very big hit with them at all.

Billy, who had been peacefully dozing throughout the discussion, came to with a yawn.

“’S no use sitting up listening to the rain all night. What d’you say?” He addressed them all.

“I guess we better,” answered Mr. Wilde, and motioning to the boys as he walked toward the open doorway. “Better turn in, boys. We get out pretty early.”

“Gosh, I don’t feel a bit like it, do you, Wes?”

“Naw, I’m too excited to think about it even. They say all those old pioneers like Kit Carson and Uncle Dick Wooton hardly ever slept at all. They had to keep awake and watch for the Indians.”

“Watcha talking about? They didn’t watch for the Indians at all,” he contradicted in a superior tone of voice.

“What did they do then, huh?”

“Went out and got ’em red-handed. They had to, because they were redskins, get me?”

“Do I get you? I’m way ahead of you.”

“You score all right. You know what?”

“What?”

“I’d like to be a fireman on this road when I get older.”

“Not me. I’d rather be the engineer. Why’d you like to be the fireman, Rip?”

“They got better chances of seeing what’s going on while they’re riding and the engineer has to keep his mind and eyes straight ahead.”

“Gee, that’s right.” Westy was beginning to recognize the superior intelligence of his new friend and felt more kindliness toward him.

A few minutes after the porter entered, his arms occupied by various sizes and shapes of various colored shoes. Westy rose and Rip followed suit.

It lacked another minute before midnight would open her portals to welcome the infant day, and still Westy lay wide-eyed in his berth, staring into the darkness. Rip’s heavy breathing above him and the occasional light creak of the springs, betrayed the fact that Rip’s sleep was by no means dreamless.

Wes listened intently as the wheels glided on in flight. Sometimes it gave him the sensation that they weren’t in motion at all, for the roadbed was so smooth that the Limited annihilated the miles like a winged serpent.

They went over a crossing, for he could hear the bell as they passed tinkling its warning of danger to the unwary. Then all lapsed into silence again save the steady drowsy hum of the engine.

Yes, all was silent in the Pullman, too. Silent, except for the loud nasal chorus of those who would proclaim to the whole world their slumbering state. The porter, his cares laid aside for the time, was also contributing his bit in a minor key and at intervals he became very entertaining and shifted down to something that sounded like a bass note, but producing a weird echo like that of a rattlesnake dying. Westy was sure he preferred the minor key; it was much more comforting to hear.

He thought after a while that an hour or more must have passed. His eyes burned for the want of sleep and his throat was awful dry. Poking his head through the curtain he ascertained whether there was any one about. Not a soul anywhere at either end. Good thing they had the end section; he wouldn’t have to slip anything on. Padding out to the water cooler, he quenched his thirst hurriedly and got back in his berth again without encountering any one, and tried his luck at sleeping for the hundredth time.

Suddenly he felt an impact that fairly shook him in his berth. The emergency brake most likely, and in the next moment he knew he reasoned about right as the whole car seemed to throb and tremble before coming to a dead stop.

“Gee,” he whispered softly to himself, lying with eyes wide and ears straining for some sound, “every one else but me must be unconscious if that didn’t wake them.”

Evidently no one had heard anything, nor were they aware of the stationary attitude of the train. The heavy breathing and loud snores continued uninterrupted as before.

Of course, it wasn’t such an unusual thing for a fast train to stop suddenly out on the plains at night, nor anywhere else for that matter. But, he reasoned, it was unusual for the emergency brake to be applied as it was and then stand as they did without even a whistle or warning of any kind.

Save for the patter of the falling rain there was a dead silence; not a human sound outside and yet that very silence was pregnant with danger.

Westy got up and dressed.