“Naw, I don’t. And if I am, it ain’t none of your business that I can see.”
“Perhaps I mean to make it so.”
“Aw run along and play, kid. Don’t bother me.”
The brakeman glared angrily at the tall, well-built lad who had accosted1 him. In so doing, he for an instant ceased belaboring2 a dust-covered, cowering3 lad in pitifully ragged4 clothing whom, a moment before, he had been cuffing5 about the head without mercy.
[6]
“Take that, you young tramp!” he had hurled6 out savagely7, as each blow fell on the quivering form.
The boy receiving this unmerciful punishment had been discovered riding the blind-baggage on the long, dust-covered train of Canadian Pacific coaches that had just come to a stop.
Of course the boy had been summarily ejected, and the brakeman was now engaged in what he would have termed “dusting the young rascal’s jacket.”
It was a pitiful sight, though, to see the slender, emaciated8 lad, whose rags hardly covered his thin body, and who could not have been much above sixteen, cowering under the punishment of the burly trainman. The brakeman was not of necessity a brute9. But in his eyes the lad was “a miserable10 tramp,” and only getting his just dues. To more humane11 eyes, though, the scene appeared in a different light.
Some of the passengers, gazing from the windows,[7] had ventured to cry, “Shame,” but that was all that had come of it till Ralph Stetson, who had been standing12 with a group of his friends at the other end of the platform of the Pine Pass station, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, happened to see what was going forward. Without a word he had hastened from them and come to the rescue. Ralph was a boy whose blood always was on fire at the sight of cruelty and oppression, and it appeared to him that the brakeman was being unnecessarily rough. Besides, there was something in the big, appealing eyes of the sufferer, and his ragged, ill-clad form, that aroused all his sympathies. So it came about that he had tried to check the punishment with the words quoted at the beginning of this chapter.
Now he stood facing the brakeman who appeared quite willing for a minute to drop the lad he was maltreating and turn on the newcomer. Perhaps, though, there was something in Ralph’s eye that held him back. Old “King-pin” Stetson’s[8] son looked thoroughly14 business-like in his broad-brimmed woolen15 hat, corduroy jacket and trousers, stout16 hunting boots and flannel17 shirt, with a handkerchief loosely knotted about the neck. Evidently he had come prepared to rough it in the wild country in the midst of which the train had come to a halt.
His life and experiences in the strenuous18 country along the Mexican border had toughened Ralph’s muscles and bronzed his features, and he looked well equipped physically19 to carry out the confidence expressed in his cool, clear eyes.
“Who are you, anyhow?” the brakeman hurled at him, growing more aggressive as he saw some of his mates running toward him from the head of the long train where the two big Mogul locomotives were thundering impatiently.
“Never mind that for now. drop that boy and I’ll pay his fare to wherever he wants to go.”
“Well, you are a softy! Pay a tramp’s fare? Let me tell you, mister——”
[9]
“Say, going to hold this train all day?” demanded the conductor bustling20 up. “What’s all this?”
“This kid got on the train in the night some place. Bin21 ridin’ the blind baggage. I was giving him ‘what for’ when this other kid butts22 in,” explained the brakeman.
“I said I was willing to pay this boy’s fare rather than see him abused,” struck in Ralph, flushing slightly.
“Well, that’s fair and square,” said the conductor, “so long as he pays his fare, that’s all I care. But I ain’t goin’ to hold my train. Where d’ye want to go, boy?”
“This is Pine Pass, ain’t it?” demanded the ride stealer, whom the brakeman had now released.
“This is the Pass,—yes. Come, hurry up.”
“Then I’ve come all the fur I’m goin’.”
As if to signify that his interest was over, the conductor waved his hand to the engineers peering[10] from their cabs ahead. The brakemen scampered23 for their cars. The locomotives puffed24 and snorted and the long train began to move. As the conductor swung on he called back sarcastically25:
“Sorry we couldn’t wait while you fixed26 it up. Wish you joy of your bargain.”
In another instant the train was swinging around into a long cut between deep, rocky walls. In yet another instant it was gone, and Ralph Stetson, with a rather puzzled expression on his good-looking face, stood confronting the scarecrow-like object he had rescued from the brakeman. In the tenement-house district of any large city the pitiful figure might not have looked out of place.
But here, in the Canadian Rockies, with a boiling, leaping torrent27 racing28 under a slender trestle, great scraps29 of rocks and pine and balsam-clad mountains towering above, and in the distance the mighty30 peaks of the Selkirks looming31 against[11] the clean-swept blue, the spectacle that this waif of the big towns presented seemed almost ludicrous in its contrast. Ralph felt it so at least, for he smiled a little as he looked at the disreputable figure before him and asked:
“What are you doing at Pine Pass?”
The question was certainly a natural one. Besides the tiny station, no human habitation was in sight. Above it, threatening to crush it seemingly, towered a precipice32 of dark colored rock. Beyond this rose mighty pines, cliffs, waterfalls and, finally, climbing fields of snow. Everywhere peaks and summits loomed33 with a solitary34 eagle wheeling far above. In the air was the thunderous voice of the torrent as it tumbled along under the spidery trestle beyond the station, and the sweet, clean fragrance35 of the pines.
“What’m I doin’ at Pine Pass?” The ragged youth repeated the question. “I-I’m sorry, mister, but I can’t tell yer.” He paused, and a strange, wistful look came into his eyes as he[12] gazed at the distant peaks, “I thought some time I’d get up among them mountains; but there’s a heap more of ’em than I calculated on.”
“How did you get here? Where did you come from?” pursued Ralph.
“Frum Noo York.” And then, answering the unspoken question, he continued, “You kin13 call me Jimmie, and ef you want ter know how I got yere, I jes’ beat it.”
“Beat it, eh? Tramped it, you mean?”
“Yep. Stole rides when I could. Walked when I couldn’t. Bin two munts er more, I reckin. Steamboats, freights, blin’ baggage, anyting.”
“And what did you think you’d do when you got here?”
“Work till I got some coin togedder. But it don’t look much as if there was any jobs fer a kid aroun’ here, does it?”
“It does not. What can you do?”
“Anyting; that’s on the level.”
[13]
“Hum; you wait here a minute, Jimmie. I don’t quite understand what brought you here, and if you don’t want to tell me I won’t ask you. But you wait here a minute and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Say, you will? Kin you put me to woik? Say, you’re all right, you are, mister. I’ll bet you’d have put that braky away in a couple of punches, big as he wuz.”
And the boy gazed admiringly after Ralph’s athletic36 form as the latter hastened toward the group at the end of the platform. They were standing beside what appeared to be a small mountain of baggage and they had just noticed his absence.
“Well, what under the sun——?” began Harry37 Ware38, whose full name, H. D. Ware, was, of course, shortened at Stone fell College to Hardware.
“Simpering serpents, Ralph,” broke in Percy Simmons, who, equally, of course, was known to[14] his boyish chums as Persimmons, “grinning gargoyles39, we knew this was to be a collecting trip, but you appear to have started by acquiring a scarecrow!”
“Hold on a minute, boys,” cried Ralph, half laughingly, for Persimmons’ odd way of talking and explosive exclamations40 made everyone who knew him smile. “Hold on; listen to what happened.”
The eldest41 member of the group, a tall and angular, but withal good-natured and kindly42 looking man with a pair of shell-rimmed spectacles perched across his bony nose, now struck in.
“Yes, boys; let us hear what Ralph has been up to now. I declare, since our experience along the Border I’m prepared for anything.”
“Even what may befall us in the Canadian Rockies, eh, Professor Wintergreen?” asked Ralph. “Well, that lad yonder, if I’m not much[15] mistaken, is our future deputy cook, bottlewasher, and midshipmate.”
They all stared at him. Persimmons was the first to recover his voice.
“Giggling gophers,” he gasped43, “as if Hardware hadn’t brought along enough patent dingbats without your adding a live one to the collection!”
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1
accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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2
belaboring
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| v.毒打一顿( belabor的现在分词 )；责骂；就…作过度的说明；向…唠叨 | |
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3
cowering
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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4
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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5
cuffing
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的现在分词 )；袖口状白血球聚集 | |
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6
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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7
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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8
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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9
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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11
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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12
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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13
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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14
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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15
woolen
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| adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的 | |
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17
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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18
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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20
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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21
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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22
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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23
scampered
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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25
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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26
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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27
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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28
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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29
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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30
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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31
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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32
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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33
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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34
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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35
fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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36
athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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37
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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38
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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39
gargoyles
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| n.怪兽状滴水嘴( gargoyle的名词复数 ) | |
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40
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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41
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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42
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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43
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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