There was a tinge of disgust in his voice, and he went out to smoke on the engine.
“Was it Cousin Kirk?” said May to me, breathlessly.
I nodded. Jeanie blushed.
7.
The United States marshals from New Orleans had kept rather quiet throughout the journey; but as we approached the city of Bagdad their spirits rose. The momentary interest caused by Mr. Raoul’s and Cousin Kirk’s shots had subsided when they learned there was nothing national or professional in the affair. Amateur shooting was always poor. But May Bruce was considered with more attention; and when their “special” of a “shirt-tail” engine and a caboose backed up to the Bagdad platform, they all requested to be presented to her. General McBride performed the ceremony with much formality; including Mrs. Judge Pennoyer, upon whom, I could see, they looked with a reverence that only her years divided from admiration. Even Raoul came in for some passive applause; but I played, as I saw, a very second fiddle, which is why, perhaps, Miss Jeanie [Pg 113]and I went off and took a walk, by moonlight, down through the ravine where I first met her.
We returned to find Mrs. Pennoyer slumbering peacefully on a settee; but Raoul was walking up and down nervously. The straight track stretched glistening away in the moonlight, but not a train nor engine was in sight.
“How long do you think it’ll take Mr. Bruce to get down back here?” says Raoul to me, nervously.
“Train Number Two doesn’t come back till to-morrow, they said.”
“I know; but the station man here tells me the engineer on Number Two married a cousin of Kirk Bruce’s brother-in-law. Our train doesn’t come along from Memphis until four in the morning. And there’s not an engine to be had in Bagdad.”
“There’s one,” said I; and I pointed to a distant shower of sparks above the forest. At the same moment the peculiar light rattle of a “wild” engine was audible.