"I got a better name fur him "en that," says Jeff, "Whifflet.i.t."
"W"ich?" asks Gumbo.
Seemingly Jeff has not heard his friend"s question. In an undertone, and as though seeking to recall the words of a given formula, he communes with himself, "Fust you baits him wid the cheese. An" "en w"en he nibble the cheese, he git all swelled up an" "en whilst he"s flappin" helpless you leans over the side of the boat an jes" natch.e.l.ly laffs him to death."
"Whut-all is you mumblin"?" demands Gumbo Rollins, puzzled by these seemingly unrelated and irrelevant mouthings. "Is you crazy?"
"Yas," concurs Jeff, "crazy lak the king of the weazels."
CHAPTER IX
PLENTIFUL VALLEY
"So this here head brakeman, the same being a large, coa.r.s.e, hairy, rectangular person with a square-toed jaw and a square-jawed toe, he up and boots the two of us right off this here freight train."
My old and revered friend, Scandalous Doolan, is much addicted to opening a narrative smack down the middle, as though it were an oyster, and then, by degrees, working both ways--toward the start and the finish. So it did not greatly surprise me that without preface, dedication, index or chapter-heading, he should suddenly introduce a head brakeman and a freight train into a conversation which until that moment had dealt with topics not in the least akin to these. Indeed, knowing him as I did, it seemed to me all the better reason why I should promptly incline the greedy ear, for over and above his eccentricities in the matter of launching a subject, Mr. Doolan is the only member of his calling I ever saw who talks in real life as all the members of his calling are fondly presumed to talk, in story-books and on the stage.
I harkened, therefore, saying nothing, and sure enough, having dealt for a brief pa.s.sage of time with the incident of a certain enforced departure from a certain as yet unnamed common carrier, he presently retraced his verbal footsteps and began at the beginning.
I quote in full:
"Yes, sir, that"s what he does. Refusing to listen to reason, this here head brakeman, which anybody could tell just by looking at him that he didn"t have no heart a-tall and no soul, so as you could notice it, he just red lights us off into the peaceful and sun-lit bosom of the rooral New York State landscape. But before reaching the landscape it becomes necessary for us to slide down a grade of a perpendicular character, and in pa.s.sing I am much pleased to note that the right-of-way is self-trimmed to match the prevalent style of scenery, with maybe a few cinders interspersed for decorations. There is one cla.s.s of travelers which prefers a road-bed rock-ballasted, and these is those which goes on trains from place to place. There"s another kind which likes a road-bed done in the matched or natural materials, and them"s the kind which goes off trains from time to time. And us two, being for the moment in this cla.s.s, we are much gratified by the circ.u.mstance.
"And we sits up and dusts ourselves off in a nonchalant manner while the little old choo-choo continues upon her way to Utica, Syracuse, and all points west, leaving me and the Sweet Caps Kid with all the bright world before us, and nothing behind us but the police force.
"For some months previous to this, me and the Sweet Caps Kid has been sojourning in that favored metropolis which is bounded on one side by a loud Sound and on the other by a steep Bluff, and is doing her constant best at all times to live up to the surroundings. Needless to say, I refer to little Noo Yawk, the original haunt of the come-on and the native habitat of the sure thing, where the jays bite freely and the woods are full of fish. We have been doing very well there--very, very well, considering. What with working the nuts on the side streets right off Broadway and playing a little three-card monte down round Coney in the cool of the evening and once in a while selling a st.u.r.dy husbandman from over Jersey way a couple of admission tickets to Central Park, we have found no cause to complain at the business depression. It sure looks to us like confidence has been restored and any time she seems a little backward we take steps to restore her some ourselves. But all of a sudden, something seems to tell me that we oughter be moving.
"You know how them mysterious premonitions comes to a feller. A little bird whispers to you, or you have a dream, or else you walk into the mitt-joint and hand a he-note to a dark complected lady wearing a red kimono and a brown mustache, and she takes a flash at your palm and seems to see a dark man coming with a warrant, followed by a trip up a great river to a large stone building like a castle. Or else Headquarters issues a general alarm, giving names, dates, personal description, size of reward and place where last seen. This time it"s a general alarm. From what I could gather, a downcasted Issy Wisenheimer has been up to the front parlor beefing about his vanishing bankroll and his disappearing breast-pin. You wouldn"t think a self-respecting citizen of a great Republic like this"n would carry on so over thirty-eight dollars in currency and a diamond so yeller it woulda been a topaz if it had been any yellower. But such was indeed the case. I gleans a little valuable information from a friendly barkeeper who"s got a brother-in-law at the Central Office, and so is in position to get hold of much interesting and timely chit-chat before it becomes common gossip throughout the neighborhood. So then I takes the Sweet Caps Kid off to one side and I says to him, I says:
""Kiddo," I says, "listen: I"ve got a strong presentiment that we should oughter be going completely away from here. If we don"t, the first thing you know some plain-clothes bull with fallen arches and his neck shaved "way up high in the back will be coming round asking us to go riding with him down town into the congested district, and if we declines the invitation, like as not he"ll muss our clothes all up. Do you seem to get my general drift?" I says.
""Huh," he says, "you talk as if there"d been a squeal."
""Squeal?" I says. "Squeal? Son, you can take it from me there"s been a regular season of grand opera. You and me are about to be accused of pernicious activity. What"s more, they"re liable to prove it. There"s a movement on foot in influential quarters to provide us with board and lodgings at a place which I will not name to you in so many words on account of your weak heart. The work there," I says, "is regular, and the meals is served on time, and you"re protected from the damp night air; but," I says, "the hours is too long and too confining to suit me."
I"ve knowed probably a thousand fellers in my time that sojourned up at Bird Center-on-the-Hudson anywhere from one to fifteen years on a stretch, and I never seen one of them yet but had some fault to find with the place.
""Whereas, on the other hand," I says, "all nature seems to beckon to us. Let"s you and me steal forth under the billowy blue caliber of Heaven and make hay while the haymakers are good. Let us quit the city with its temptations and its snares and its pitfalls, "specially the last named," I says, "and in some peaceful spot far, far away, let us teach Uncle Joshua Whitcomb that the hand is quicker than the eye, him paying cash down in advance for the lessons. Tubby sure, the pickings has been excellent here in the shadow of the skysc.r.a.pers, and it"ll probably be harder sledding out amongst the disk-harrow boys. Everybody reads the papers these days, only the Rube believes what he reads and the city guy don"t. I hate to go, but I ain"t comfortable where I am.
When my scalp begins to itch like it does now that"s a sign of a close hair-cut coming on. I"ve got educated dandruff," I says, "and it ain"t never fooled me yet. In short," I says, "I"ve been handed the office to skiddoo, and in such cases I believe in skiddooing. Let us create a vacancy in these parts _sine quinine_--which," I says, "is Latin, meaning it"s a bitter dose but you gotta take it."
""I can start right this minute," says Sweet Caps; "my tooth-brush is packed and all I"ve got to do is to put on my hat. S"pose we run up to a Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, which is a nice secluded spot," he says, "and catch the rattler."
""How are you fixed for currency?" I says.
""Fixed?" he says. "I ain"t fixed a-tall. A"int you been carrying the firm"s bank-roll? Say, ain"t you?"
"Well, right there I has to break the sad news to him. I does it as gentle as I could but still he seems peeved. Money has caused a lot of suffering in this world, they tell me, but I"m here to tell you the lack of it"s been responsible for consider"ble many heartburnings too. Up until that minute I hadn"t had the heart to tell the Sweet Caps Kid that our little joint partnership bank-roll is no longer with us. I"d been saving back them tidings for a more suitable moment, but now I has to tell him.
"It seems that the night before, I had been tiger hunting in the jungle down at Honest John Donohue"s. Of course I should have knowed better than to go up against a game run by anybody calling hisself Honest John.
Them complimentary monakers always work with the reverse English. You are walking along and you see a gin-mill across the street with a sign over the door which says it"s Smiling Pete"s Place, and you cross over and look in, and behind the bar is an old guy who ain"t heard anything that really pleased him since the Martinique disaster. He"s standing there with his lip stuck out like a fender on a street car, and a bung starter handy, just hoping that somebody will come in and start to start something. That"s Smiling Pete. As for this here Donohue, he"s so crooked he can"t eat nothing such as stick candy and cheese straws without he gets cramps in his stomach. He"d take the numbers off your house. That"s why they call him Honest John. I know all this, good and well, but what"s a feller going to do when his is the only place in town that"s open? You"ve got to play somewheres, ain"t you? Somehow, I always was sort of drawed to faro.
"Well, you know the saying--one man"s meat is another"s pizen. He was my pizen and I certainly was his meat. So now, I ain"t got nothing in my pockets except the linings.
"I tells the Sweet Caps Kid just how it was--how right up to the very last minute I kept expecting the luck to turn and how even then I mighta got it all back if the game-keeper hadn"t been so blamed unreasonable and mercenary. When my last chip is gone I holds up a finger for a marker and tells him I"ll take another stack of fifty, all blues this time, but he only looks at me sort of chilly and distrustful and remarks in a kind of a bored way that there"s nothing doing.
""That"ll be all right," I says to him. "I"ll see you to-morrow."
""No, you wont," he says, spiteful-like.
""Why," I says, "wont you be here to-morrow?"
""Oh, yes," he says, "we"ll be here to-morrow, but you wont."
""Is that so?" I says, sarcastical. "Coming in," I says, "I thought I seen the word _Welcome_ on the doormat."
""Going out," he says, "you"ll notice that, spelled backward, it"s a French word signifying _Mind Your Step_."
"And while I"m thinking up a proper comeback for that last remark of his"n somebody hands me my hat, and in less"n a minute, seems-like, I"m out in the street keeping company with myself.
"I tells all this to the Sweet Caps Kid, but still he don"t seem satisfied with my explanation. That"s one drawback to the Kid"s disposition--he gets all put out over the least little thing. So I says to him: "Cheer up," I says, "things ain"t so worse. Due to my being in right with the proper parties we gets this here advance tip, and we beats the barrier while this here fat Central Office bull, who thinks he wants us, is slipping his collar on over his head in the morning.
Remember," I says, "we are going to the high gra.s.s where the little birdies sing and the flowers bloom. Providence," I says, "has an eye on every sparrow that falls, but nothing is said about the jays," I says, "and we"ll see if a few of them wont fall for our little cute tricks."
"Tubby sure, I"m speaking figurative. I aint really aiming for the deep woods proper. Only I"ve been in Noo Yawk long enough to git the Noo Yawk habit of thinking everybody beyond Rahway, New Jersey, is the Far West.
I"m really figuring to land in one of them small junction points, such as Cleveland or Pittsburgh. And we would too, if it hadn"ta been for that there head brakeman.
"Anyway, we moons round in a kind of an unostentatious way, with the Kid still acting peevish and low in his mind, and me saying little things every now and then to chirk him up, until the shank of the evening arrives "long about two A.M. Then we slips over into the yards below Riverside Drive, taking due care not to wake up no sleeping policeman on the way. There we presently observes a freight train, which is giving signs of getting ready to make up its mind to go somewheres.
"A freight train is like a woman. When you see a woman coming out of the front door and running back seven or eight times to get something she"s forgot, you know that woman is on her way. And it"s the same with freights; that"s why they call "em "_shes_". Pretty soon this here freight quits vacilliating back and forth, and comes sliding down past where we"re waiting.
""Here comes a side-door Pullman, with the side door open," I says.
"Let"s get on and book a couple of lowers."
""How do you know where she"s going?" says the Kid, him being greatly addicted to idle questions.
""I don"t," I says; "the point is that she"s going. To-night she will be here but to-morrow she will be extensively elsewhere; and so," I says, "will we. Let us therefore depart from these parts while the departing is good," I says.
"Which we done so, just like I"m telling you. And for some hours we trundles along very snug and comfortable, both of us being engrossed in sleep. When we wakes up it"s another day, and the wicked city is far, far behind us, and we are running through a district which is entirely surrounded by scenery. If it hadn"ta been that something keeps reminding me I ai"nt had no breakfast I coulda been just as happy.
""Where"ll we git off?" says Sweet Caps, setting up and rubbing his eyes.
""Well," I says, "we takes our choice. Maybe Albany," I says. "The legislature is in special session there, and a couple of grafters more or less wont make no material difference--they"ll probably take us for members. Maybe Rochester," I says, "which is a pleasant city, full of large and thriving industries. Maybe," I says, "if this here train don"t take a notion to climb down off the track and go berry-picking, maybe Chicago. Of course," I says, "Chi ain"t quite so polished as Noo Yawk.
Chi has been called crude by some. When I think of Noo Yawk," I says, "I think of a peroxide chorus lady going home at three o"clock in the morning in two taxicabs, but when I think of Chicago I"m reminded of a soused hired girl, with red hair, on a rampage. But," I says, "what"s the difference? Everywhere you go," I says, "there"s always human life, and Chicago is reputed to be quite full of population and very probably we can find a few warm-hearted persons there who are more or less addicted to taking a chance."
"But you know how it is in these matters--you never can tell. Just as I"m concluding my remarks touching on our two largest cities, this here brakeman comes snooping along and intimates that we better be thinking about getting off. He"s probably the biggest brakeman living. If he was any bigger than what he is, he"d be twins. We endeavors to argue him out of the notion but it seems like he"s sort of set in his mind. Besides, being so much larger than either one of us or both of us put together, for that matter, he has the advantage in repartee. So he makes an issue of it and we sees our way clear to getting off without waiting for the locomotive to slow up or anything. After our departure, the train continues on its way thither, we remaining hither.