Cool Hand Luke - Donn Pearce [89]
All night they walked, stumbling along the ties and the ballast. Once they heard a train approaching and got off the tracks, crouching behind some bushes. The headlight and the noise of the whistle came closer. When the engine roared past they began running for all they were worth. But the speeding freight cars went whistling past them in a dim and shadowy blur. They were forced to give up, standing there with heaving chests and gasping breaths, watching the red lights of the rear end of the caboose gradually disappearing.
They kept on walking. They reached a water tower and decided to wait there for another train. But it began to get cold. It was in the middle of February and a light frost was forming on the ground. They put their hands in their pockets and buttoned up their collars. Dragline wanted to build a fire but Luke wouldn’t permit it. After a few hours they heard a train approaching pulled by a diesel locomotive. It was heading north but by this time they didn’t care about the direction. They crouched down, all set for the sprint, listening to the approaching roar. But it turned out to be the Silver Meteor flashing by at a speed impossible to catch.
They continued on in silence. It became colder. They began to shiver, alternately walking and then jogging beside the tracks, the rails shining in the moonlight and leading them onward.
Later they saw a frame house just off the roadbed beside an open, cultivated field. Two large chinaberry trees in the yard were casting deep black shadows beneath the foliage. The fugitives crept into this shade, examining the house, looking at the clothing hanging on a line behind the rear porch and wondering if any of it would fit them.
Treading carefully, they eased out into the moonlight. But when they drew close to the corner of the porch a large dog suddenly appeared, barking loudly and continuously. They froze. Wondering if they should make a run for it or attempt to snatch the clothes in spite of the dog, they just stood there, looking into each other’s eyes. The dog increased the intensity of its barking until a loud, clear human voice challenged the night from inside the house.
Aw right. Who’s out there?
Dragline and Luke sucked in their breath. The dog’s barking went into a higher pitch. The voice insisted.
Who’s out there? Yo’ll better git the hell gone from here. Ah’m tellin‘ yuhl
They began to withdraw, not sure if they could be seen from one of the darkened windows or not, muffling their footsteps but moving steadily towards the cover of the chinaberry trees and then out of the shadows and back to the roadbed. After they had reached the tracks and were out of ear shot of the house, Dragline began to stamp his feet and wave his arms.
Gawd damn them yelpin‘ bitches! Ah’d a-been a millionaire by now if it warn’t fer them gawd damn dawgs. Of all the fuckin’ luck. Trains won’t slow down. Cain’t git no Free World clothes. And it’s gittin‘ to be colder’n a witch’s tit out here.
Well, Drag. You can always go on back to Camp and climb back into your little old bed. I mean, don’t forget. This bein‘ free is damn hard work. I mean, maybe you just ain’t cut out for the job.
Sometimes they sat down on the crossties and rested. But Luke was always anxious to keep moving. It got colder. They reached an area of citrus groves and could see fires dotted in regular lines out among the dark forms of the rows of trees. They could hear distant voices and the laboring growls of truck motors and transmissions. Gangs of workers were out tending smudge pots put out as a precaution against the fruit being damaged by frost.
Dragline wanted to curl up on the ground next to one of those fires and get some sleep. But Luke was afraid they would be seen and wanted to travel at night and sleep during the day. Dragline was reluctant but he listened to Luke.
On they went, following the straight, unwavering lines of the railroad tracks that led away into the starry night. But later it started