The Mountain Divide

  CHAPTER XIV

  The loss of the engine at Goose Creek brought an unexpected relief toBucks. His good work in the emergency earned for him a promotion. Hewas ordered to report to Medicine Bend for assignment, and within aweek a new man appeared at Goose Creek to relieve him.

  There was little checking up to do. Less than thirty minutes gaveBucks time to answer all of his successor's questions and pack histrunk. He might have slept till morning and taken a passenger train toMedicine Bend, but the prospect of getting away from Goose Creek atonce was too tempting to dismiss. A freight train of bridge timberspulled across the bridge just as Bucks was ready to start. PatFrancis, the doughty conductor, who, single-handed, had held IronHand's braves at bay, was in charge of the train. He offered Bucks abench and blanket in the caboose for the night, and promised to havehim in Medicine Bend in the morning; Bucks, nothing loath, accepted.His trunk was slung aboard and the train pulled out for MedicineBend.

  The night proved unseasonably cold. Francis built a blazing fire inthe caboose stove and afterward shared his hearty supper with hisguest. As the train thundered and rumbled slowly over the rough track,the conductor, while Bucks stretched out on the cushions, entertainedhim with stories of his experiences on the railroad frontier--notsuspecting that before morning he should furnish for his listener oneof the strangest of them.

  Bucks curled up in his blanket late, but, in spite of unaccustomedsurroundings and the pitch and lurch of the caboose, which was hardlyless than the tossing of a ship in a gale, Bucks dozed while hiscompanion and the brakeman watched. The latter, a large, heavy fellow,was a busy man, as the calls for brakes--and only hand-brakes werethen known--were continual. There were no other passengers, and exceptfor the frequent blasts of the engine whistle the night passed quietlyenough.

  Bucks dreamed of fighting bears with Scuffy, and found himselfrepeatedly rolling down precipitous mountains without landingsuccessfully anywhere. Then he quieted into a heavy, unbroken sleepand found himself among the hills of Alleghany, hunting rabbits thatwere constantly changing into antelope and escaping him. Fatigued withhis unceasing efforts, he woke.

  A gray light, half dusk, revealed the outlines of the cab interior, ashe opened his eyes, and a thundering, rumbling sound that rang in hisears and seemed everywhere about him cleared his mind and brought himback to his situation.

  It was cold, and he looked at the stove. The fire was out. On theopposite side of the cab the brakeman lay on the cushions fast asleep.Outside, the thundering noises came continuously from everywhere atonce. It did not occur to Bucks that the caboose was standing still.It trembled and vibrated more or less, but he noticed there was nolonger any lurching and thought they had reached remarkably smoothtrack. They were certainly not standing still, he assured himself, ashe rubbed his eyes to wake up. But perhaps they might be in the yardsat Medicine Bend, with other trains rolling past them.

  Somewhat confused he raised the curtain of the window near him. Thesky was overcast and day was breaking. He rose higher on his elbow tolook more carefully. Everywhere that his eye could reach toward thehorizon the earth seemed in motion, rising and falling in great waves.Was it an earthquake? He rubbed his eyes. It seemed as if everywherethousands of heads were tossing, and from this continual tossing andtrampling came the thunder and vibration. Moreover, the caboose wasnot moving; of this he felt sure. Amazed, and only half-awake, heconcluded that the train must have left the track and dropped into ariver. The uncertainty of his vision was due, he now saw, to a stormthat had swept the plains. It was blowing, with a little snow, and inthe midst of the snow the mysterious waves were everywhere rising andfalling.

  Bucks put the curtain completely aside. The sound of his feet strikingthe floor aroused the conductor, who rose from his cushion with astart. "I've been asleep," he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. "Where arewe, Bucks?"

  "That is what I am trying to figure out."

  "Where is the brakeman?" demanded Francis. As he asked the question hesaw the big fellow asleep in the corner. Francis shook him roughly."That comes of depending on some one else," he muttered to Bucks. "Iwent to sleep on his promise to watch for an hour--he knew I had beenup all last night and told me to take a nap. You see what happened.The moment I went to sleep, he went to sleep," exclaimed Francis indisgust. "Wake up!" he continued brusquely to the drowsy brakeman."Where are we? What have we stopped for? What's all this noise?"Though he asked the questions fast, he expected no answer to any ofthem from the confused trainman and waited for none. Instead, he threwup a curtain and looked out. "Thunder and guns! Buffaloes!" he cried,and seizing his lantern ran out of the caboose door and climbed theroof-ladder. Bucks was fast upon his heels.

  The freight train stood upon a wide plain and in the midst ofthousands of buffaloes travelling south. As far as their eyes couldreach in all directions, the astonished railroad men beheld a sea ofmoving buffaloes. Without further delay Francis, followed by Bucks,started along the running boards for the head end of the train.

  The conductor found his train intact; but when he reached the head endhe could find neither engine, tender, nor crew. All had disappeared.Running down the ladder of the head box-car, the conductor examinedthe draw-bar for evidence of an accident. The coupling was apparentlyuninjured but the tender and engine were gone. Francis, more upsetthan Bucks had ever seen him, or ever afterward saw him, walkedmoodily back to the caboose. What humiliated him more than the strangepredicament in which he found himself was that he had trusted to asubordinate and gone to sleep in his caboose while on duty.

  "Serves me right," he muttered, knitting his brows. "Brakeman," headded sternly, "take your lantern and flags and get out behind. Theminute the buffaloes get across the track, go back two hundred yardsand protect us. I will watch the head end. While these buffaloes arecrossing they will be protection enough. Soon as it is daylight wewill find out where we are."

  The snow continued falling and the buffaloes drifted south with thestorm, which was squally. Every moment, as the sky and landscapelightened, Francis, whom Bucks had followed forward, expected to seethe last of the moving herd. But an hour passed and a second hourwithout showing any gaps in the enormous fields. And the brighter thedaylight grew, the more buffaloes they could see.

  Francis stormed at the situation, but he could do nothing. Finally,and as hope was deserting him, he heard the distant tooting of anengine whistle. It grew louder and louder until Bucks could hear theringing of a bell and the hissing of the open cylinder cocks of aslow-moving locomotive. Gaps could now be discerned in the great herdsof buffaloes, and through the blowing snow the uncertain outlines ofthe backing engine could dimly be seen. Francis angrily watched theapproaching engine, and, as soon as it had cleared the last of thestumbling buffaloes on the track, he walked forward to meet it andgreeted the engineman roughly.

  "What do you mean by setting my train out here on the main track inthe middle of the night?" he demanded ferociously, and those that knewPat Francis never wanted to add to his anger when it was aroused.

  "Don't get excited," returned Dan Baggs calmly, for it was theredoubtable Baggs who held the throttle. "I found I was getting shortof water. We are just coming to Blackwood Hill and I knew I couldnever make Blackwood Siding with the train. So I uncoupled and ran tothe Blackwood tank for water. We are all right now. Couple us up. If Ihadn't got water, we should have been hung up here till we got anotherengine."

  "Even so," retorted Francis, "you needn't have been all night aboutit."

  "But when we started back there were about ten million buffaloes onthe track. If I had been heading into them with the cow-catcher Ishouldn't have been afraid. But I had to back into them, and if I hadcrippled one it would have upset the tender."

  "Back her up," commanded Francis curtly, "and pull us out of here."

  Meantime there was much excitement at the despatchers' office inMedicine Bend over the lost train. It had been reported out of WhiteHorse Station on time, and had not reported at Blackwood. For hoursthe despa
tcher waited vainly for some word from the bridge timbers.When the train reported at Blackwood Station, the message of Francisexplaining the cause of the tie-up seemed like a voice from the tombs.But the strain was relieved and the train made fast time fromBlackwood in. About nine o'clock in the morning it whistled for theMedicine Bend yards and a few moments later Bucks ran upstairs in thestation building to report for assignment.