“Good-bye! Thank you for all, Kit,” she said and turned her head.
Kit kissed her and jumped back. The crowd had reached the car and people pushed him from the steps. For a moment Alison leaned over the rail and he waved his cap.
“Cheerio! Look in front!” he shouted, and Alison smiled and vanished.
Two or three minutes afterwards the cars jolted and smoke and cinders blew about. Lights rolled by and melted, the locomotive bell stopped and the train was gone. Kit went back to the waiting hall, but he did not steer for the bench Alison had occupied. Sitting down across the floor, he moodily lighted his pipe.
CHAPTER XII
KIT PLAYS FOR HIS SUPPER
In the morning Kit’s train stopped at a prairie station and he went along the line to the baggage car. The door rolled back, and when he jumped on the step a sack plunged out and rolled down the bank. Then a box crashed on the ballast, and since Kit did not want to be knocked off he moved along the step. Inside the car a muscular fellow pulled down a pile of baggage and another waited to throw out the stuff. Although Kit beckoned, the men did not stop.
“Have you got a small brown steamer trunk?” he inquired.
“We have not,” said one. “Get out of the light!”
“The trunk was loaded up at Montreal——”
The baggage man gave an order to his mate, and they dragged a box to the door and pushed it from the ledge. In order to avoid a collision Kit jumped down and when he climbed back his face was red.