"No, yer don"t," said the man. "You stay whar yer are. Yer ain"t goin"
ter double-cross _me_."
"I don"t know what you mean by that," said Pee-wee.
The convict did not offer him any explanation, only stood guarding the door with a threatening aspect, which very much disconcerted Pee-wee. He was a scout and he was brave, and not panicky in peril or emergency, but the striped clothing and cropped head and stupid leer of the man before him made him seem something less than human. His terror was more that of an animal than of a man and his apparent inability to express himself save by the repet.i.tion of that one sentence frightened the boy.
Apparently the creature was all instinct and no brains.
"Yer gotta stay here," he repeated. "Yer ain"t goin" ter double-cross _me_, pal."
Then it began to dawn on Pee-wee what he meant.
"I guess I know about you," he said, "because I heard about your--getting away. But, anyway, if you let me go away I won"t tell anyone I saw you. I don"t want to camp here now. I"ll promise not to go and tell people, if that"s what you"re afraid of."
"Wot"s in that bag?" asked the man.
"My camping things."
"Got any grub?"
"I"ve got two biscuits and some chocolate."
"Gimme it," said the man, coming closer.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed the food as fast as it was taken out of the bag, and Pee-wee surmised that he had not eaten since his escape from prison for he devoured it ravenously like a famished beast.
"Got any more?" he asked, glaring into the boy"s face menacingly.
"No, I"m sorry I haven"t. I escaped, too, as you might say, from my friends--from the fellers I was with. And I only brought a little with me."
After a few minutes (doubtless from the stimulating effects of the food), the convict"s fear seemed to subside somewhat and he spoke a little more freely. But Pee-wee found it very unpleasant being shut in with him there in the darkness, for, of course, the flashlight could not be kept burning all the time.
"I wouldn"t do yer no hurt," he a.s.sured Pee-wee. "I t"ought mebbe yer wuz a _de_-coy. Yer ain"t, are ye?" he asked suspiciously.
"No, I"m not," said Pee-wee, "I"m just what I told you----"
"I ain"t goin" ter leave ye go free, so ye might"s well shut up. I seen pals double-cross _me_--them ez I trusted, too. Yer square, I guess--only innercent."
"I"d keep my word even with--I"d keep my word with you," said Pee-wee, "just the same as with anyone. Besides, I don"t see what"s the use of keeping me here. You"ll have to let me go some time, you can"t keep me here forever, and you can"t stay here forever, yourself."
"If ye stan" right "n" show ye"re game," said the convict, "thar won"t no hurt come to ye. This here car"s way-billed fer Buff"lo, "n" I"m waitin" ter be took up now. It"s a grain car. Yer ain"t goin" ter peach wot I tell ye, now? I wuz put wise to it afore I come out by a railroad bloke. I had it straight these here cars would be picked up fer Buff"lo the nex" day after I done my trick. But they ain"t took "em up yet, an"
I"m close ter starvin" here."
Pee-wee could not help but feel a certain sympathy with this man, wretch though he was, who on the information of some accomplice outside the prison, had made his escape expecting to be carried safely away the next day and had been crouching, half-starved, in this freight car ever since, waiting.
"What will you do if they don"t take up the car for a week?" he asked.
"They might look inside of it, too; or they might change their minds about taking it."
He was anxious for himself for he contemplated with terror his threatened imprisonment, but he could not help being concerned also for this miserable creature and he wondered what would happen if they both remained in the car for several days more, with nothing to eat. Then, surely, the man would be compelled to put a little faith in him and let him go out in search of food. He wondered what he should do in that case--what he ought to do; but that, he realized, was borrowing trouble.
Mr. Ellsworth, his scoutmaster, had once said that it is _always bad to play false_. Well, then, would it be bad to play false with an escaped felon--to double-cross him? Pee-wee did not know.
His companion interrupted his train of thought "They don" look inside o"
way-billed empties--not much," he said, "an" they don"t let "em stan" so long, nuther. I got bad luck, I did, from doin" my trick on a Friday.
They"ll be "long pretty quick, though. They reckisitioned all th" empty grain cars fer Buff"lo. I"m lookin" ter hear th" whistle any minute, I am, an" I got a pal waitin" fer me in the yards up ter Buff"lo, wid the duds. When I get there "n" get me clo"s changed, mebbe I"ll leave ye come back if me pal "n" me thinks ye kin be trusted."
"I can be trusted now just as much as I could be trusted then," said Pee-wee, greatly disturbed at the thought of this enforced journey; "and how could I get back? I guess maybe you don"t know anything about scouts--maybe they weren"t started when you were---- Anyway, a scout can be trusted. Anybody"ll tell you that. If he gives his word he"ll keep it. I don"t know anything about what you did and if you ask me if I want to see you get captured I couldn"t tell you, because I don"t know how I feel. But if you"ll let me go now I"ll promise not to say anything to anyone. I don"t want to go to Buffalo. I want to go to my camp. As long as I know about you, you got to trust me some time and you might as well trust me now."
If the fugitive could have seen Pee-wee"s earnest face and honest eyes as he made this pitiful appeal, he might have softened a little, even if he had not appreciated the good sense of the boy"s remarks.
"I"d ruther get me other duds on fust, "n" I"d like fer ter hev ye meet me pal," he said, with the first touch of humor he had shown. "Now, if yer go ter cuttin" up a rumpus I"ll jest hev ter brain ye, see?"
Pee-wee leaned back against the side of the car in the darkness as despair seized him. He had always coveted adventure but this was too much and he felt himself to be utterly helpless in this dreadful predicament. Even as he stood there in a state of pitiable consternation, a shrill whistle sounded in the distance, which was echoed back from the unseen hills.
"Dat"s a freight," said the convict, quickly.
Pee-wee listened and his last flickering hope was extinguished as he recognized the discordant rattle and bang of the slow-moving train, emphasized by the stillness of the night. Nearer and nearer it came and louder grew the clank and clamor of the miscellaneous procession of box cars. It was a freight, all right.
"If--if you"ll let me get out," Pee-wee began, on the very verge of a panic, "if you"ll let me get out----"
The convict fumblingly took him by the throat. He could feel the big, coa.r.s.e, warm fingers pressing into the sides of his neck and it gagged him.
"If yer open yer head when we"re bein" took up, I"ll brain yer, hear that?" he said. "Gimme that light, gimme yer knife."
He flashed on the light, tore the scout knife from Pee-wee"s belt, and flung the frightened boy against the side of the car. Keeping the light pointed at him, he opened the knife. The spirit of desperate resolve seemed to have reawakened within him at the sound of that long-hoped-for train and Pee-wee was no more to him than an insect to have his life trampled out if he could not be used or if his use were unavailing.
Here, unmasked, was the man who had braved the tempestuous river on that dreadful night. Truly, as the sheriff had said, "desperate characters will take desperate chances."
"If yer open yer head or call out or make a noise wid yer feet or poun"
de side o" de car or start a-bawlin" I"ll brain ye, ye hear? n.o.body gets _me_ alive. An" if anybody comes in here "cause o" you makin" a noise and cryin" fer help, yer"ll be the fust to git croaked--see?"
He pointed the light straight at Pee-wee, holding the open jack-knife in his other hand, and glared at him with a look which struck terror to the boy"s heart. Pee-wee was too frightened and exhausted to answer. He only shook his head in acknowledgment, breathing heavily.
In a few minutes the train had come abreast of them and stopped. They could hear the weary puffing of the engine, and voices calling and occasionally they caught the gleam of a lantern through the crack in the car. Pee-wee remained very still. The convict took his stand in the middle of the car between the two sliding doors, lowering and alert, holding the flashlight and the clasp knife.
Soon the train moved again, then stopped. There were calls from one end of it to the other. Then it started again and continued to move until Pee-wee thought it was going away, and his hope revived at the thought that escape might yet be possible. Then the sound came nearer again and presently the car received a jolt, accompanied by a bang. The convict was thrown a little, but he resumed his stand, waiting, desperate, menacing. Those few minutes must have been dreadful ones to him as he watched the two doors, knife in hand.
Then came more shunting and banging and calling and answering, a short, shrill whistle and more moving and then at last the slow, continuous progress of the car, which was evidently now at last a part of that endless miscellaneous procession, rattling along through the night with its innumerable companions.
"It"s lucky for them," said the convict, through his teeth, as he relaxed.
Pee-wee hardly knew what he meant, he had scarcely any interest, and it was difficult to hear on account of the noise. He was too shaken up to think clearly, but he wondered, as the rattling train moved slowly along, how long he could go without food, how he would get back from Buffalo, and whether this dreadful companion of his would take his stand, like an animal at bay, whenever the train stopped.
After a little time, when he was able to get a better grip on himself and realize fully his terrible plight, he began to think how, after all, the scout, with all his resource and fine courage, his tracking and his trailing and his good turns, is pretty helpless in a real dilemma. Here was an adventure, and rather too much of a one, and neither he nor any other scout could extricate him from his predicament. In books they could have done it with much brave talk, but in real life they could do nothing. He was tired and frightened and helpless; the shock of the pressure of those brutal fingers about his neck still distressed him, and his head ached from it all.
What wonder if in face of this tragical reality, the scouts with all their much advertised resource and prowess should lose prestige a little in his thoughts? Yet it might have been worth while for him to pause and reflect that though the scout arm is neither brutal nor menacing, it still has an exceedingly long reach and that it can pin you just as surely as the cruel fingers which had fixed themselves on his own throat.
But he was too terrified and exhausted to think very clearly about anything.