Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels Part 19

"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 was _our_ train 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 rus.h.i.+ng?"

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 d.i.c.kens 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 going over 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 s.p.a.ce 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 down in 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.

CHAPTER XXV

IN THE DARK

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 makes.h.i.+ft station. Gee whiz, we didn't care about that, we even liked it, because it was old-fas.h.i.+oned 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. Crink.u.ms, 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 bra.s.s 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 Sat.u.r.day night in Ridgeboro and we couldn't get 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 battery won'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, _you_ walk them and I'll stay here," the kid said.