So Jeb slouched away to look after his master"s farm work as well as his own, and as he worked he grumbled and thought of the fun and frolics the "fellers" in Oak Creek were having on their pay-day.
At the Denver station, two girls dressed in the latest modes, walked along the platform toward a line of railway coaches.
"What dirty-looking cars. Can these be right?" said Barbara Maynard.
And the younger girl, Eleanor, replied: "I suppose they burn soft coal."
"Well, they shouldn"t! Everything we have on will be covered with soot before we reach the town."
"That will mean more business for the dry-cleaners at Oak Creek,"
laughed Eleanor. Had she known that the place could not boast of any kind of a cleaning establishment, she would have laughed louder and longer at the novelty.
"I suppose this Oak Creek is the shopping center for all the smaller villages that are within motoring distance of it," surmised Barbara.
"I suppose so," agreed Eleanor, as she watched a man oil the wheels under the engine.
The man finished the work and straightened up. His face and hands were black from grease and oil and soot, but he smiled a friendly smile at the young ladies who were obviously waiting to board his train.
"She"s all made up, leddies, ef you-all wants to git in."
"Mercy! Does he have to grin as if he were an old friend when he announces the fact?" complained Barbara, daintily picking her way between boxes and bags of freight.
"He"s a genuine western type," laughed Eleanor, following her sister into the coach.
"Goodness gracious! Are we expected to sit on these old dusty plush seats?" cried Barbara, whipping the upholstery with her tiny handkerchief before she seated herself.
Again Eleanor laughed but she was not as merry as when she jumped from the Pullman that morning.
Quite different were the sensations of the two city girls, to those of Anne Stewart, as they pa.s.sed over the same route and saw the same country. Perhaps it was the difference in training more than the ideals of the three girls.
"Nolla, can all the houses be as horrid as those we have pa.s.sed by?"
asked Barbara, nodding at a group of log-houses.
"I don"t know, but they certainly are smaller than the homes in Chicago, aren"t they?" rejoined Eleanor, gazing in open curiosity at the scenery and buildings so different from that of the city.
"Smaller! Why, they are simply _poverty_-stricken in looks!" exclaimed Barbara in disgust.
The nearer the train came to Oak Creek, the smaller and rougher the houses seemed, until the guard called out:
"Oak Crick! Here"s your station!"
The girls gazed at each other in consternation, for the place was little more than a rough mining settlement, or ranch-town.
The brakeman caught up the leather bags and jumped from the slowing train. He planked them down regardless of contents, and ran off to the station. It was an old discarded box-car shoved on a siding to do duty as ticket-office and freight station.
The girls hurried out to the car platform and Barbara asked: "Nolla, why don"t you call the porter?"
"They never had one on this line!" Then stepping down side-ways from the high narrow steps of the train, Eleanor cried:
"Gracious! Do catch me if I fall!"
Barbara stared about as a frozen horror slowly crept into her soul and was expressed in her eyes. "Was _this_ the lovely mountain resort for which she had planned such conquests?"
Eleanor spied the precious bags too close to the tracks to insure their safety, so she rushed over to save them from disaster--for who could tell whether that shaky old train would hold together much longer!
But the Local looked worse than it really was. It was as reliable a set of old cars as could be found, even if the paint and polish had vanished with age. Just as the bags were recovered, the whistle tooted, the wheels grated in turning, and the train that on its return trip to Denver, might have carried these girls back to _their_ kind of civilization, slowly pulled out of sight.
Eleanor struggled with the two well-filled bags of toilet accessories, and deposited them before her sister. "Bet you everything is broken, and our house-dresses ruined with perfume!"
As Barbara made no reply, Eleanor followed the direction of her stare.
A group of dreadful looking miners and a crowd of wild-looking cow-punchers were using seven expensive wardrobe trunks for their pleasure.
Evidently the men had indulged in too many tests of Oak Creek whiskey, called "Pizen" by the natives. The cow-boys were picturesque enough in their wide sombreros, woolly chaps, gay shirts, and a swagger that matched their trick of shooting. The miners were swarthy, bearded foreigners, who wore long boots, loose shirts, and belts from which ugly-looking six-shooters protruded.
As Eleanor decided to go over to the circle surrounding the trunks, and demand an explanation she heard a hardened miner shout: "It"s my deal next!"
Then the sisters saw that their largest trunk had been turned over on its side to make a convenient card-table. The others accommodated the players and loungers whose spurred heels beat a tattoo upon the polished grain-leather covers.
"Humph! At least we can display original etchings on our trunks when we get them back home," remarked Eleanor, with a gleam of amus.e.m.e.nt at the affair.
"Everything will simply be ruined! Just see that trunk holding my evening-dresses--right by that horse-trough. Do make those awful creatures go away, won"t you, Nolla?" begged Barbara.
"With those nasty guns sticking from their belts--not me! But I"ll go to the office and complain to the baggage-master."
So Eleanor courageously turned her back on the fascinating sight of all those revolvers, and Barbara followed closely at her sister"s heels; both of them hurried to the old car that displayed a sign saying it was the baggage-room. No one was there, so the girls stood at the door, whence the road leading to the railway could be seen.
"If only we knew when the chauffeur would come!" sighed Barbara, but now Eleanor had misgivings about an automobile.
Meantime the men had seen the two strangers hovering about but they were not aware that the trunks belonged to the new-comers. When the girls entered the "station" one old rascal leaned over and said:
"Them are tenderfeet an" we-all oughter welcome "em in th" good old-fashioned custom."
"Sure thing!" cried the others, and they quickly planned.
Eleanor decided it was time to dispossess these ruffians from her property, so she a.s.sumed an air of courage and started for the group, while Barbara held firmly to her sister"s sleeve. But an unexpected denouement halted the two girls.
"Ah say you cheated that deal!" howled a miner, at the same time he slapped his leather gauntlet across a cow-boy"s face.
Instantly every revolver was whipped forth and a terrible fight ensued, every man taking part in the general melee. The girls, trembling with fear as shots and curses rang out profusely, clung to each other helplessly, but failed to note that the guns were aimed skyward.
"Hey, boys--what the deuce do you-all mean?" shouted a fine-looking man coming upon the scene unannounced.
The crowd of men looked sheepish and hurriedly explained the joke, looking over in the direction of the two strangers. As their welcome was considered a huge joke the men laughed loudly. Mr. Brewster (for it was the rancher) frowned when he saw the pale girls almost fainting from fear. Then he turned to the ringleader in the plot:
"Say, Bill! Was that pesky train from Denver on time--or too soon, for a change?" asked Mr. Brewster, consulting his watch.
"It war ten minits too airly, "cause Hank Janssen, th" ingineer, "s got a christenin" down to his home to-night," explained Bill.