U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [29]
"We'l have swel coffee in Seattle, damned if we won't, Mac." They went to sleep again, and when they woke up they were thirsty and stiff. The train had stopped. There was
-68-no sound at al . They lay on their backs stretching and listening. "Gee, I wonder where in hel we are." After a long while they heard the cinders crunching down the track and someone trying the fastenings of the boxcar doors down the train. They lay so stil they could hear both their hearts beating. The steps on the cinders crunched nearer and nearer. The sliding door slammed open, and their car was suddenly ful of sunlight. They lay stil . Mac felt the rap of a stick on his chest and sat up blinking. A Scotch voice was burring in his ears:
"I thought I'd find some Pul man passengerrs . . . Al right, byes, stand and deliver, or else you'l go to the constabulary."
"Aw hel ," said Ike, crawling forward.
"Currsin' and swearin' won't help ye . . . If you got a couple o' quid you can ride on to Winnipeg an' take your chances there . . . If not you'l be doin' a tidy bit on the roads before you can say Jack Robinson."
The brakeman was a smal blackhaired man with a
mean quiet manner.
"Where are we, guv'ner?" asked Ike, trying to talk like an Englishman.
"Gretna . . . You're in the Dominion of Canada. You can be had up, too, for il egal y crossin' Her Majesty's frontier as wel as for bein' vags."
"Wel , I guess we'd better shel out . . . You see we're a couple of noblemen's sons out for a bit of a-bloody lark, guv'ner."
"No use currsin' and prevarricatin'. How much have you?"
" Coupla dol ars."
"Let's see it quick."
Ike pul ed first one dol ar, then another, out of his pocket; folded in the second dol ar was a five. The Scotch-man swept the three bil s up with one gesture and slammed the sliding door to. They heard him slip down
-69-the catch on the outside. For a long time they sat there quiet in the dark. Final y Ike said, "Hey, Mac, gimme a sock in the jaw. That was a damn fool thing to do . . . Never oughta had that in my jeans anyway . . . oughta had it inside my belt. That leaves us with about seventy-five cents. We're up shit creek now for fair . . . He'l probably wire ahead to take us outa here at the next big town.""Do they have mounted police on the railroad, too?" asked Mac in a hol ow whisper. "Jez, I don't know any more about it than you do." The train started again and Ike rol ed over on his face and went glumly to sleep. Mac lay on his back behind him looking at the slit of sunlight that made its way in through the crack in the door and wondered what the inside of a Canadian jail would be like. That night, after the train had lain stil for some time in the middle of the hissing and clatter of a big freight-yard, they heard the catch slipped off the door. After a while Ike got up his nerve to slide the door open and they dropped, stiff and terribly hungry, down to the cinders. There was another freight on the next track, so al they could see was a bright path of stars overhead. They got out of the freightyards without any trouble and found themselves walking through the deserted streets of a large widescattered city.
" Winnipeg's a pretty friggin' lonelylookin' place, take it from me," said Ike.
"It must be after midnight."
They tramped and tramped and at last found a little lunchroom kept by a Chink who was just closing up.
They spent forty cents on some stew and potatoes and coffee. They asked the Chink if he'd let them sleep on the floor