it is well for its peace of mind that the traveling public takes railroads so much for granted. the only men who are incurably nervous about railway travel are the railroad operatives. a railroad man never forgets that the next run may be his turn.
on a single-track road, like that upon which ray kennedy worked, the freight trains make their way as best they can between passenger trains. even when there is such a thing as a freight time-schedule, it is merely a form. along the one track dozens of fast and slow trains dash in both directions, kept from collision only by the brains in the dispatcher’s office. if one passenger train is late, the whole schedule must be revised in an instant; the trains following must be warned, and those moving toward the belated train must be assigned new meeting-places.
between the shifts and modifications of the passenger schedule, the freight trains play a game of their own. they have no right to the track at any given time, but are supposed to be on it when it is free, and to make the best time they can between passenger trains. a freight train, on a single-track road, gets anywhere at all only by stealing bases.
ray kennedy had stuck to the freight service, although he had had opportunities to go into the passenger service at higher pay. he always regarded railroading as a temporary makeshift, until he “got into something,” and he disliked the passenger service. no brass buttons for him, he said; too much like a livery. while he was railroading he would wear a jumper, thank you!
the wreck that “caught” ray was a very commonplace one; nothing thrilling about it, and it got only six lines in the denver papers. it happened about daybreak one morning, only thirty-two miles from home.
at four o’clock in the morning ray’s train had stopped to take water at saxony, having just rounded the long curve which lies south of that station. it was joe giddy’s business to walk back along the curve about three hundred yards and put out torpedoes to warn any train which might be coming up from behind—a freight crew is not notified of trains following, and the brakeman is supposed to protect his train. ray was so fussy about the punctilious observance of orders that almost any brakeman would take a chance once in a while, from natural perversity.
when the train stopped for water that morning, ray was at the desk in his caboose, making out his report. giddy took his torpedoes, swung off the rear platform, and glanced back at the curve. he decided that he would not go back to flag this time. if anything was coming up behind, he could hear it in plenty of time. so he ran forward to look after a hot journal that had been bothering him. in a general way, giddy’s reasoning was sound. if a freight train, or even a passenger train, had been coming up behind them, he could have heard it in time. but as it happened, a light engine, which made no noise at all, was coming,—ordered out to help with the freight that was piling up at the other end of the division. this engine got no warning, came round the curve, struck the caboose, went straight through it, and crashed into the heavy lumber car ahead.
the kronborgs were just sitting down to breakfast, when the night telegraph operator dashed into the yard at a run and hammered on the front door. gunner answered the knock, and the telegraph operator told him he wanted to see his father a minute, quick. mr. kronborg appeared at the door, napkin in hand. the operator was pale and panting.
“fourteen was wrecked down at saxony this morning,” he shouted, “and kennedy’s all broke up. we’re sending an engine down with the doctor, and the operator at saxony says kennedy wants you to come along with us and bring your girl.” he stopped for breath.
mr. kronborg took off his glasses and began rubbing them with his napkin.
“bring—i don’t understand,” he muttered. “how did this happen?”
“no time for that, sir. getting the engine out now. your girl, thea. you’ll surely do that for the poor chap. everybody knows he thinks the world of her.” seeing that mr. kronborg showed no indication of having made up his mind, the operator turned to gunner. “call your sister, kid. i’m going to ask the girl herself,” he blurted out.
“yes, yes, certainly. daughter,” mr. kronborg called. he had somewhat recovered himself and reached to the hall hatrack for his hat.
just as thea came out on the front porch, before the operator had had time to explain to her, dr. archie’s ponies came up to the gate at a brisk trot. archie jumped out the moment his driver stopped the team and came up to the bewildered girl without so much as saying good-morning to any one. he took her hand with the sympathetic, reassuring graveness which had helped her at more than one hard time in her life. “get your hat, my girl. kennedy’s hurt down the road, and he wants you to run down with me. they’ll have a car for us. get into my buggy, mr. kronborg. i’ll drive you down, and larry can come for the team.”
the driver jumped out of the buggy and mr. kronborg and the doctor got in. thea, still bewildered, sat on her father’s knee. dr. archie gave his ponies a smart cut with the whip.
when they reached the depot, the engine, with one car attached, was standing on the main track. the engineer had got his steam up, and was leaning out of the cab impatiently. in a moment they were off. the run to saxony took forty minutes. thea sat still in her seat while dr. archie and her father talked about the wreck. she took no part in the conversation and asked no questions, but occasionally she looked at dr. archie with a frightened, inquiring glance, which he answered by an encouraging nod. neither he nor her father said anything about how badly ray was hurt. when the engine stopped near saxony, the main track was already cleared. as they got out of the car, dr. archie pointed to a pile of ties.
“thea, you’d better sit down here and watch the wreck crew while your father and i go up and look kennedy over. i’ll come back for you when i get him fixed up.”
the two men went off up the sand gulch, and thea sat down and looked at the pile of splintered wood and twisted iron that had lately been ray’s caboose. she was frightened and absent-minded. she felt that she ought to be thinking about ray, but her mind kept racing off to all sorts of trivial and irrelevant things. she wondered whether grace johnson would be furious when she came to take her music lesson and found nobody there to give it to her; whether she had forgotten to close the piano last night and whether thor would get into the new room and mess the keys all up with his sticky fingers; whether tillie would go upstairs and make her bed for her. her mind worked fast, but she could fix it upon nothing. the grasshoppers, the lizards, distracted her attention and seemed more real to her than poor ray.
on their way to the sand bank where ray had been carried, dr. archie and mr. kronborg met the saxony doctor. he shook hands with them.
“nothing you can do, doctor. i couldn’t count the fractures. his back’s broken, too. he wouldn’t be alive now if he weren’t so confoundedly strong, poor chap. no use bothering him. i’ve given him morphia, one and a half, in eighths.”
dr. archie hurried on. ray was lying on a flat canvas litter, under the shelter of a shelving bank, lightly shaded by a slender cottonwood tree. when the doctor and the preacher approached, he looked at them intently.
“didn’t—” he closed his eyes to hide his bitter disappointment.
dr. archie knew what was the matter. “thea’s back there, ray. i’ll bring her as soon as i’ve had a look at you.”
ray looked up. “you might clean me up a trifle, doc. won’t need you for anything else, thank you all the same.”
however little there was left of him, that little was certainly ray kennedy. his personality was as positive as ever, and the blood and dirt on his face seemed merely accidental, to have nothing to do with the man himself. dr. archie told mr. kronborg to bring a pail of water, and he began to sponge ray’s face and neck. mr. kronborg stood by, nervously rubbing his hands together and trying to think of something to say. serious situations always embarrassed him and made him formal, even when he felt real sympathy.
“in times like this, ray,” he brought out at last, crumpling up his handkerchief in his long fingers,—“in times like this, we don’t want to forget the friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
ray looked up at him; a lonely, disconsolate smile played over his mouth and his square cheeks. “never mind about all that, padre,” he said quietly. “christ and me fell out long ago.”
there was a moment of silence. then ray took pity on mr. kronborg’s embarrassment. “you go back for the little girl, padre. i want a word with the doc in private.”
ray talked to dr. archie for a few moments, then stopped suddenly, with a broad smile. over the doctor’s shoulder he saw thea coming up the gulch, in her pink chambray dress, carrying her sun-hat by the strings. such a yellow head! he often told himself that he “was perfectly foolish about her hair.” the sight of her, coming, went through him softly, like the morphia. “there she is,” he whispered. “get the old preacher out of the way, doc. i want to have a little talk with her.”
dr. archie looked up. thea was hurrying and yet hanging back. she was more frightened than he had thought she would be. she had gone with him to see very sick people and had always been steady and calm. as she came up, she looked at the ground, and he could see that she had been crying.
ray kennedy made an unsuccessful effort to put out his hand. “hello, little kid, nothing to be afraid of. darned if i don’t believe they’ve gone and scared you! nothing to cry about. i’m the same old goods, only a little dented. sit down on my coat there, and keep me company. i’ve got to lay still a bit.”
dr. archie and mr. kronborg disappeared. thea cast a timid glance after them, but she sat down resolutely and took ray’s hand.
“you ain’t scared now, are you?” he asked affectionately. “you were a regular brick to come, thee. did you get any breakfast?”
“no, ray, i’m not scared. only i’m dreadful sorry you’re hurt, and i can’t help crying.”
his broad, earnest face, languid from the opium and smiling with such simple happiness, reassured her. she drew nearer to him and lifted his hand to her knee. he looked at her with his clear, shallow blue eyes. how he loved everything about that face and head! how many nights in his cupola, looking up the track, he had seen that face in the darkness; through the sleet and snow, or in the soft blue air when the moonlight slept on the desert.
“you needn’t bother to talk, thee. the doctor’s medicine makes me sort of dopey. but it’s nice to have company. kind of cozy, don’t you think? pull my coat under you more. it’s a darned shame i can’t wait on you.”
“no, no, ray. i’m all right. yes, i like it here. and i guess you ought not to talk much, ought you? if you can sleep, i’ll stay right here, and be awful quiet. i feel just as much at home with you as ever, now.”
that simple, humble, faithful something in ray’s eyes went straight to thea’s heart. she did feel comfortable with him, and happy to give him so much happiness. it was the first time she had ever been conscious of that power to bestow intense happiness by simply being near any one. she always remembered this day as the beginning of that knowledge. she bent over him and put her lips softly to his cheek.
ray’s eyes filled with light. “oh, do that again, kid!” he said impulsively. thea kissed him on the forehead, blushing faintly. ray held her hand fast and closed his eyes with a deep sigh of happiness. the morphia and the sense of her nearness filled him with content. the gold mine, the oil well, the copper ledge—all pipe dreams, he mused, and this was a dream, too. he might have known it before. it had always been like that; the things he admired had always been away out of his reach: a college education, a gentleman’s manner, an englishman’s accent—things over his head. and thea was farther out of his reach than all the rest put together. he had been a fool to imagine it, but he was glad he had been a fool. she had given him one grand dream. every mile of his run, from moonstone to denver, was painted with the colors of that hope. every cactus knew about it. but now that it was not to be, he knew the truth. thea was never meant for any rough fellow like him—hadn’t he really known that all along, he asked himself? she wasn’t meant for common men. she was like wedding cake, a thing to dream on. he raised his eyelids a little. she was stroking his hand and looking off into the distance. he felt in her face that look of unconscious power that wunsch had seen there. yes, she was bound for the big terminals of the world; no way stations for her. his lids drooped. in the dark he could see her as she would be after a while; in a box at the tabor grand in denver, with diamonds on her neck and a tiara in her yellow hair, with all the people looking at her through their opera-glasses, and a united states senator, maybe, talking to her. “then you’ll remember me!” he opened his eyes, and they were full of tears.
thea leaned closer. “what did you say, ray? i couldn’t hear.”
“then you’ll remember me,” he whispered.
the spark in his eye, which is one’s very self, caught the spark in hers that was herself, and for a moment they looked into each other’s natures. thea realized how good and how great-hearted he was, and he realized about her many things. when that elusive spark of personality retreated in each of them, thea still saw in his wet eyes her own face, very small, but much prettier than the cracked glass at home had ever shown it. it was the first time she had seen her face in that kindest mirror a woman can ever find.
ray had felt things in that moment when he seemed to be looking into the very soul of thea kronborg. yes, the gold mine, the oil well, the copper ledge, they’d all got away from him, as things will; but he’d backed a winner once in his life! with all his might he gave his faith to the broad little hand he held. he wished he could leave her the rugged strength of his body to help her through with it all. he would have liked to tell her a little about his old dream,—there seemed long years between him and it already,—but to tell her now would somehow be unfair; wouldn’t be quite the straightest thing in the world. probably she knew, anyway. he looked up quickly. “you know, don’t you, thee, that i think you are just the finest thing i’ve struck in this world?”
the tears ran down thea’s cheeks. “you’re too good to me, ray. you’re a lot too good to me,” she faltered.
“why, kid,” he murmured, “everybody in this world’s going to be good to you!”
dr. archie came to the gulch and stood over his patient. “how’s it going?”
“can’t you give me another punch with your pacifier, doc? the little girl had better run along now.” ray released thea’s hand. “see you later, thee.”
she got up and moved away aimlessly, carrying her hat by the strings. ray looked after her with the exaltation born of bodily pain and said between his teeth, “always look after that girl, doc. she’s a queen!”
thea and her father went back to moonstone on the one-o’clock passenger. dr. archie stayed with ray kennedy until he died, late in the afternoon.
