“I guess so.” Jim put his hand to his side, where each breath brought a stab of pain, but brought it down again quickly lest her swift glance catch the motion. “It’s pretty in here, isn’t it?”
“It’s longer,” replied Lou practically. “An’ the sun’s gittin’ low. Let’s hurry.”
There was little further talk between them, 29for Jim had already discovered that his companion was not one to speak unless she had something to say, and he was breathing in short snatches to stifle the pain. The track wound endlessly in and out among the trees, and in the dim light he would have lost it altogether more than once had it not been for her light touch upon his arm.
At length the track turned abruptly through the thinning trees and led down to a rough sort of road, on either side of which ramshackle wooden tenements leaned crazily against each other, with dingy rags hanging from lines on the crooked porches. Slatternly, dark-skinned women gazed curiously at them as they passed.
From somewhere came the squalling of a hurt child and a man’s oath roughly silencing it, while through and above all other sounds came the bleating of a harmonica ceaseless reiterating a monotonous, foreign air.
The sun had set, and from just beyond the squalid settlement came the crash and clang of freight-cars being shunted together. In spite of his pain, Jim realized that nowhere 30in this vicinity could his self-constituted companion rest for the night; open fields or dense woodland were safer far for her.
“Let us cross the tracks and push on up that hill road a little,” he suggested. “We can’t stay here, and they’ll think we are tramps if they catch us by the railroad.”
“I guess that’s what we are.” Lou wrinkled her already upturned nose. “But the country would be nicer again, if you ain’t give out.”
He assured her doggedly that he had not, and they crossed the tracks and started up the steep hill road past the coal-dump and the few scattered cottages to where the woodland closed in about them once more.
Jim picked up a stout stick and leaned heavily upon it as they plodded along, while the twilight deepened to darkness and the stars appeared. The girl’s step lagged now, but she kept up in little spurts and set her lips determinedly.