CHAPTER XXII
BAD TIDINGS
The dust was rolling about the cars and the gaunt poles whirled past before I could recover breath to answer the astonished conductor. Then it was with a gasp I said: "Won't you get me a little water?"
The man vanished, and I sat still vacantly noticing how the prairie reeled behind me until the door slid open and he returned with a tin vessel and a group of curious passengers behind him. A piece of ice floated in the former, and a man held out a flask. "I guess it won't hurt him, adulterated some," he said.
Never before had I tasted so delicious a draught. Hours of anxiety and effort under a blazing sun had parched and fouled my lips, and my throat was dry as unslaked lime. The tin vessel was empty when I handed it back, and the railroad official looked astonished as he turned it upside down for the spectators' information. "I guess a locomotive tank would hardly quench that thirst of yours," he said.
"Thanks. I'll get up. It was not for amusement I boarded your train as I did," I said, and the rest opened a passage for me into the long Colonist car. There was a mirror above the basins in the vestibule, and a glance into it explained their curiosity. The white shirt had burst in places; the grime of alkali had caked on my face, leaving only paler circles about the eyes. Hardened mire crusted the rest of my apparel, and each movement made it evident to me that portions of the epidermis had been abraded from me.
"It's not my business how passengers board these cars, so long as they're tolerably decent, and can pay their fare," observed the conductor. "Still, although we're not particular, we've got to dress you a little between us; and it mightn't be too much to ask what brought you here in such an outfit?"
It was evident that the others were waiting to ask the same question, and I answered diplomatically: "I have money enough to take me to Empress at Colonist fare, and was half way to the depot to catch the cars on the old schedule before I discovered you had commenced the accelerated service. Then I flung off every ounce of weight that might lose me the race."
"You must have had mighty important business," somebody said; and the door at the opposite end opened as I answered dryly: "I certainly had."
"Hallo! Great Columbus! Is that you, Ormesby?" a voice which seemed familiar said; and, turning angrily, I saw a storekeeper with whom I had dealt staring at me in bewilderment.
"Ormesby!" the name was repeated by several passengers, and I read sudden suspicion in some of the faces, and sympathy in the rest, while one of them, with Western frankness, asked: "You're the Rancher Ormesby we've been reading about?"