On the Iron at Big CloudPackard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius)
General
On the Iron at Big Cloud
Packard, Frank L. (Frank Lucius)
Canadian fiction -- 20th century; Railroad stories; Short stories, Canadian
“All here, boys?” he called. Then he announced cheerfully: “The devil’s
to pay up the line!”
Meanwhile, Bunty, taking advantage of the interruption, had squirmed his
way through the men to the far end of the car, and the train had bumped
over the switches on to the main line before they remembered him. Then
it was too late. They hauled him out from behind a rampart of tools,
where he had intrenched himself, and Flannagan shook his fist,
half-angrily, half-playfully, in Bunty’s face.
“You little devil, what are you doing here, eh?” he demanded.
And Bunty answered as before: “I’m going up to the wreck.”
“Humph!” said Flannagan, with a grin. “Well, I guess you are, and I
guess you’ll be sorry, too, when you get back and your dad gets hold of
you.”
But Bunty was safe now, and he only laughed.
Breakfastless, he shared the men’s grub and listened wide-eyed as they
talked of wrecks in times gone by; but most of all he listened to the
story of how his father, when he was pulling Number One, had saved the
Limited by sticking to his post almost in the face of certain death.
Bunty’s father was his hero, and his small soul glowed with happiness at
the tale. He begged so hard for the story over again that Allan told
it, and when he had finished, he slapped Bunty on the back. “And I guess
you’re a chip of the old block,” he said.
And Bunty was very proud, squaring his shoulders, and planting his feet
firmly to swing with the motion of the car.
The speed of the train slackened as they struck the grade leading up
the eastern side of the Gap. Flannagan set the men busily at work
overhauling the kit. He paused an instant before Bunty. “Look here,
kid,” he said, shaking a warning finger, “you keep out of the way, and
don’t get into trouble.”
It would have taken more than words from Flanna-gan to have curbed
Bunty’s eagerness; so when the train came to a stop and the men tumbled
out of the car with a rush, he followed. What he saw caused him to purse
his lips and cry excitedly, “Gee!”
Right in front of him a big mogul had turned turtle. Ditched by a spread
rail, she had pulled three boxcars with her, and piled them up, mostly
in splinters, on the tender. They had taken fire, and were burning
furiously. Behind these were eight or ten cars still on the road-bed,
but badly demolished from bumping over the ties when they had left the
rails. Still farther down the track in the rear were the rest of the
string, apparently uninjured. The snow was knee-deep at the side of the
track, but Bunty plowed manfully through it, climbing up the embankment
to a place of vantage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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