“I delivered Oscar and Emmeline,” says I.
He squints at me and nods solemn-like. Then he says:
“I gave George Washington to his maw.”
We both nods. Then pretty soon he says—
“She got off the train to mail a letter, and the train pulled out and left her here. She wired to Cut Bank, which is the next stop, but the danged telegraph system got caught in the storm and lost its voice. She’s been whooping it up and down this here platform ever since. She hugged me seventeen times, Ike, when she finds it belongs to her, and I reckon I—I hugged her some, too.”
I finished up the rest of the lunch. Magpie got to his feet.
“Want to show you something, Ike.”
He limped around to the door of the depot, and I follered him. Near the door he stops and points at the floor. There’s a wet spot and a lot of busted glass. One piece of glass is still holding on to a rubber mouthpiece.
“Know what that is?” he asks.
I shakes my head.