“All aboard!”
From almost above his head it came:
“If you can’t get a board get a scantlin’!”
Clustered at the White or shady end of the station, the sovereign Caucasians of Swango rocked up against one another in the unbridled excess of their merriment. Farther away, at the Coloured or sunny end of the platform, the assembled representatives of the African population guffawed loudly, though respectfully. To almost any one having the gift of spontaneous repartee it might have occurred to suggest the advisability of getting a plank provided you could not get a board. It took Gash Tuttle to think up scantling.
The humourist folded his elbows on the ledge [92] of the window and leaned his head and shoulders out of the car, considering his people whimsically, yet benignantly. He wore attire suitable for travelling—a dented-in grey felt hat, adhering perilously to the rearmost slope of his scalp; a mail-order suit of light tan, with slashed seams and rows of buttons extending up the sleeves almost to the elbows; a hard-surfaced tie of pale blue satin; a lavender shirt, agreeably relieved by pink longitudinal stripings.
Except his eyes, which rather protruded, and his front teeth, which undoubtedly projected, all his features were in a state of active retreat—only, his nose retreated one way and his chin the other. The assurance of a popular idol who knows no rival was in his pose and in his poise. Alexander the Great had that look—if we may credit the likenesses of him still extant—and Napoleon Bonaparte had it, and David Garrick, to quote a few conspicuous examples.
Alone, of all those within hearing, Cap’n Buck Fluter did not laugh. Indeed, he did not even grin.
“All right, black boy,” he said. “Let’s go from here!”
The porter snatched up the wooden box that rested on the earth, flung it on the car platform and projected his person nimbly after it. Cap’n Buck swung himself up the step with one hand on the rail. The engine spat out a mouthful of hot steam and the wheels began to turn.
“Good-by, my honeys, ’cause I’m gone!” [93] called out Mr. Tuttle, and he waved a fawn-coloured arm in adieu to his courtiers, black and white. “I’m a-goin’ many and a-many a mile from you. Don’t take in no bad money while your popper’s away.”