Through the night Joshua stumbled along after him, his telescope, as inseparable as Christian’s burden, over his shoulder. They left the river bottom and crawled through a fence. They climbed the fill of the railroad grade, and the big bright eye of the coming locomotive gleamed at them from up the track, showering the rails at their feet with brilliancy.
“Dat’s her, all right,” avowed The Whimperer. “She’ll stop to take woter at dis boig, an’ de tank’s on de udder side o’ de deepo. Dat’ll bring de middle o’ de train somew’eres about here, an’ we c’n glom her easy. Le’s get down de fill an’ lay hid in de grass till we see wot’s doin’.”
The train acted according to the tramp’s wishes, and soon was at a standstill, with a string of dark boxcars looming above the expectant watchers. The Whimperer raised himself lizard-like from their hiding place and looked toward the rear end and the head end.
“Jake,” he presently announced. “Everyt’ing’s clear. C’mon!”
They walked along beside the train, The Whimperer investigating every car for an unsealed door, which indicated an empty. In the course of time he found one, cautiously slid it open, and, after carefully looking up and down the track, scrambled in and reached down a hand to his companion. When both were aboard the veteran closed the door as softly as possible, and then they stood in silence and awaited the dictates of chance.
No “shack” came to rout them out, and before long the short toot-toot of the locomotive whistle announced that the train was “out of town,” and then the wheels began to creak.
“Not bad,” The Whimperer praised himself, and sat down on the floor, with his ever-weary back against one of the boxcar’s walls. “Hit de hay, kid,” he invited. “Dere’ll be lots o’ time to sleep if youse travel wid De Whimperer fer yer jocker. He’s de plug dat’ll put youse t’rough. No foolin’!”
They made a big jump that night, and morning found them well into the misnamed Middle West. They were routed out by an irate brakeman about ten o’clock, to discover that they were in a fair-sized town and to be chased from railroad property by one of the company’s detectives. The Whimperer thought the town too large for a scientific lecture, and advised walking to a near-by village.
It was only three miles distant, and they reached it well before noon. Often, as they walked, The Whimperer looked back along the track at a figure following them, then watched his companion to see if he had been observed. When they reached the village The Whimperer protested against a restaurant, and they bought meat and vegetables and “cooked up” in the jungles. Here they rested until night, then went into the town, where Joshua once more set up his telescope and invited the populace to view the moon. The Whimperer stood by, listening to the lecture, but seeming to realize that anything he could contribute to the proceedings might result in failure because of his suspicious looks.
Joshua’s earnings were frugal that night, and The Whimperer growled his disapproval, as a good jocker should, over his road-kid’s failure to make good. In the middle of the night they caught another freight, were thrown off, caught a second, and were far from their starting point when morning came.