Banneker came out of his chair with a spring.
"Help! Help! Help! Help! Help!" screamed the strident voice.
It was like an animal in pain and panic.
For a brief instant the station-agent halted at the door to assure himself that the call was stationary1. It was. Also it was slightly muffled2. That meant that the train was still in the cut. As he ran to the key and sent in the signal for Stanwood, Banneker reflected what this might mean. Crippled? Likely enough. Ditched? He guessed not. A ditched locomotive is usually voiceless if not driverless as well. Blocked by a slide? Rock Cut had a bad repute for that kind of accident. But the quality of the call predicated more of a catastrophe3 than a mere4 blockade. Besides, in that case why could not the train back down--
The answering signal from the dispatcher at Stanwood interrupted his conjectures5.
"Number Three in trouble in the Cut," ticked Banneker fluently. "Think help probably needed from you. Shall I go out?"
"O. K.," came the answer. "Take charge. Bad track reported three miles east may delay arrival."
Banneker dropped and locked the windows, set his signal for "track blocked" and ran to the portable house. Inside he stood, considering. With swift precision he took from one of the home-carpentered shelves a compact emergency kit6, 17 S 4230, "hefted" it, and adjusted it, knapsack fashion, to his back; then from a small cabinet drew a flask7, which he disposed in his hip-pocket. Another part of the same cabinet provided a first-aid outfit8, 3 R 0114. Thus equipped he was just closing the door after him when another thought struck him and he returned to slip a coil of light, strong sash-cord, 36 J 9078, over his shoulders to his waist where he deftly9 tautened it. He had seen railroad wrecks11 before. For a moment he considered leaving his coat, for he had upwards12 of three miles to go in the increasing heat; but, reflecting that the outward and visible signs of authority might save time and questions, he thought better of it. Patting his pocket to make sure that his necessary notebook and pencil were there, he set out at a moderate, even, springless lope. He had no mind to reach a scene which might require his best qualities of mind and body, in a semi-exhausted state. Nevertheless, laden13 as he was, he made the three miles in less than half an hour. Let no man who has not tried to cover at speed the ribbed treacheries of a railroad track minimize the achievement!
A sharp curve leads to the entrance of Rock Cut. Running easily, Banneker had reached the beginning of the turn, when he became aware of a lumbering14 figure approaching him at a high and wild sort of half-gallop. The man's face was a welter of blood. One hand was pressed to it. The other swung crazily as he ran. He would have swept past Banneker unregarding had not the agent caught him by the shoulder.
"Where are you hurt?"
The runner stared wildly at the young man. "I'll soom," he mumbled15 breathlessly, his hand still crumpled16 against the dreadfully smeared17 face. "Dammum, I'll soom."
He removed his hand from his mouth, and the red drops splattered and were lost upon the glittering, thirsty sand. Banneker wiped the man's face, and found no injury. But the fingers which he had crammed18 into his mouth were bleeding profusely19.
"They oughta be prosecuted," moaned the sufferer. "I'll soom. For ten thousan' dollars. M'hand is smashed. Looka that! Smashed like a bug20."
Banneker caught the hand and expertly bound it, taking the man's name and address as he worked.
"Is it a bad wreck10?" he asked.
"It's hell. Look at m'hand! But I'll soom, all right. _I_'ll show'm ... Oh! ... Cars are afire, too ... Oh-h-h! Where's a hospital?"
He cursed weakly as Banneker, without answering, re-stowed his packet and ran on.
A thin wisp of smoke rising above the nearer wall of rocks made the agent set his teeth. Throughout his course the voice of the engine had, as it were, yapped at his hurrying heels, but now it was silent, and he could hear a murmur21 of voices and an occasional shouted order. He came into sight of the accident, to face a bewildering scene.
Two hundred yards up the track stood the major portion of the train, intact. Behind it, by itself, lay a Pullman sleeper22, on its side and apparently23 little harmed. Nearest to Banneker, partly on the rails but mainly beside them, was jumbled24 a ridiculous mess of woodwork, with here and there a gleam of metal, centering on a large and jagged boulder25. Smaller rocks were scattered26 through the _melange_. It was exactly like a heap of giant jack-straws into which some mischievous27 spirit had tossed a large pebble28. At one end a flame sputtered29 and spread cheerfully.
A panting and grimy conductor staggered toward it with a pail of water from the engine. Banneker accosted30 him.
"Any one in--"
"Get outa my way!" gasped31 the official.
"I'm agent at Manzanita."
The conductor set down his pail. "O God!" he said. "Did you bring any help?"
"No, I'm alone. Any one in there?" He pointed32 to the flaming debris33.
"One that we know of. He's dead."
"Sure?" cried Banneker sharply.
"Look for yourself. Go the other side."
Banneker looked and returned, white and set of face. "How many others?"
"Seven, so far."
"Is that all?" asked the agent with a sense of relief. It seemed as if no occupant could have come forth34 of that ghastly and absurd rubbish-heap, which had been two luxurious35 Pullmans, alive.
"There's a dozen that's hurt bad."
"No use watering that mess," said Banneker. "It won't burn much further. Wind's against it. Anybody left in the other smashed cars?"
"Don't think so."
"Got the names of the dead?"
"Now, how would I have the time!" demanded the conductor resentfully.
Banneker turned to the far side of the track where the seven bodies lay. They were not disposed decorously. The faces were uncovered. The postures36 were crumpled and grotesque37. A forgotten corner of a battle-field might look like that, the young agent thought, bloody38 and disordered and casual.
Nearest him was the body of a woman badly crushed, and, crouching39 beside it, a man who fondled one of its hands, weeping quietly. Close by lay the corpse40 of a child showing no wound or mark, and next that, something so mangled41 that it might have been either man or woman--or neither. The other victims were humped or sprawled42 upon the sand in postures of exaggerated _abandon_; all but one, a blonde young girl whose upthrust arm seemed to be reaching for something just beyond her grasp.
A group of the uninjured from the forward cars surrounded and enclosed a confused sound of moaning and crying. Banneker pushed briskly through the ring. About twenty wounded lay upon the ground or were propped43 against the rock-wall. Over them two women were expertly working, one tiny and beautiful, with jewels gleaming on her reddened hands; the other brisk, homely44, with a suggestion of the professional in her precise motions. A broad, fat, white-bearded man seemed to be informally in charge. At least he was giving directions in a growling45 voice as he bent46 over the sufferers. Banneker went to him.
"Doctor?" he inquired.
The other did not even look up. "Don't bother me," he snapped.
The station-agent pushed his first-aid packet into the old man's hands.
"Good!" grunted47 the other. "Hold this fellow's head, will you? Hold it hard."
Banneker's wrists were props48 of steel as he gripped the tossing head. The old man took a turn with a bandage and fastened it.
"He'll die, anyway," he said, and lifted his face.
Banneker cackled like a silly girl at full sight of him. The spreading whisker on the far side of his stern face was gayly pied in blotches49 of red and green.
"Going to have hysterics?" demanded the old man, striking not so far short of the truth.
"No," said the agent, mastering himself. "Hey! you, trainman," he called to a hobbling, blue-coated fellow. "Bring two buckets of water from the boiler-tap, hot and clean. Clean, mind you!" The man nodded and limped away. "Anything else, Doctor?" asked the agent. "Got towels?"
"Yes. And I'm not a doctor--not for forty years. But I'm the nearest thing to it in this shambles50. Who are you?"
Banneker explained. "I'll be back in five minutes," he said and passed into the subdued51 and tremulous crowd.
On the outskirts52 loitered a lank53, idle young man clad beyond the glories of Messrs. Sears-Roebuck's highest-colored imaginings.
"Hurt?" asked Banneker.
"No," said the youth.
"Can you run three miles?"
"I fancy so."
"Will you take an urgent message to be wired from Manzanita?"
"Certainly," said the youth with good-will.
Tearing a leaf from his pocket-ledger, Banneker scribbled54 a dispatch which is still preserved in the road's archives as giving more vital information in fewer words than any other railroad document extant. He instructed the messenger where to find a substitute telegrapher.
"Answer?" asked the youth, unfurling his long legs.
"No," returned Banneker, and the courier, tossing his coat off, took the road.
Banneker turned back to the improvised55 hospital.
"I'm going to move these people into the cars," he said to the man in charge. "The berths56 are being made up now."
The other nodded. Banneker gathered helpers and superintended the transfer. One of the passengers, an elderly lady who had shown no sign of grave injury, died smiling courageously57 as they were lifting her.
It gave Banneker a momentary58 shock of helpless responsibility. Why should she have been the one to die? Only five minutes before she had spoken to him in self-possessed, even tones, saying that her traveling-bag contained camphor, ammonia, and iodine59 if he needed them. She had seemed a reliable, helpful kind of lady, and now she was dead. It struck Banneker as improbable and, in a queer sense, discriminatory. Remembering the slight, ready smile with which she had addressed him, he felt as if he had suffered a personal loss; he would have liked to stay and work over her, trying to discover if there might not be some spark of life remaining, to be cherished back into flame, but the burly old man's decisive "Gone," settled that. Besides, there were other things, official things to be looked to.
A full report would be expected of him, as to the cause of the accident. The presence of the boulder in the wreckage60 explained that grimly. It was now his routine duty to collect the names of the dead and wounded, and such details as he could elicit61. He went about it briskly, conscientiously62, and with distaste. All this would go to the claim agent of the road eventually and might serve to mitigate63 the total of damages exacted of the company. Vaguely64 Banneker resented such probable penalties as unfair; the most unremitting watchfulness65 could not have detected the subtle undermining of that fatal boulder. But essentially66 he was not interested in claims and damages. His sensitive mind hovered67 around the mystery of death; that file of crumpled bodies, the woman of the stilled smile, the man fondling a limp hand, weeping quietly. Officially, he was a smooth-working bit of mechanism68. As an individual he probed tragic69 depths to which he was alien otherwise than by a large and vague sympathy. Facts of the baldest were entered neatly70; but in the back of his eager brain Banneker was storing details of a far different kind and of no earthly use to a railroad corporation.
He became aware of some one waiting at his elbow. The lank young man had spoken to him twice.
"Well?" said Banneker sharply. "Oh, it's you! How did you get back so soon?"
"Under the hour," replied the other with pride. "Your message has gone. The operator's a queer duck. Dealing71 faro. Made me play through a case before he'd quit. I stung him for twenty. Here's some stuff I thought might be useful."
From a cotton bag he discharged a miscellaneous heap of patent preparations; salves, ointments72, emollients73, liniments, plasters.
"All I could get," he explained. "No drug-store in the funny burg."
"Thank you," said Banneker. "You're all right. Want another job?"
"Certainly," said the lily of the field with undiminished good-will.
"Go and help the white-whiskered old boy in the Pullman yonder."
"Oh, he'd chase me," returned the other calmly. "He's my uncle. He thinks I'm no use."
"Does he? Well, suppose you get names and addresses of the slightly injured for me, then. Here's your coat."
"Tha-anks," drawled the young man. He was turning away to his new duties when a thought struck him. "Making a list?" he asked.
"Yes. For my report."
"Got a name with the initials I. O. W.?"
Banneker ran through the roster74 in the pocket-ledger. "Not yet. Some one that's hurt?"
"Don't know what became of her. Peach of a girl. Black hair, big, sleepy, black eyes with a fire in 'em. Dressed _right_. Traveling alone, and minding her own business, too. Had a stateroom in that Pullman there in the ditch. Noticed her initials on her traveling-bag."
"Have you seen her since the smash?"
"Don't know. Got a kind of confused recklection of seeing her wobbling around at the side of the track. Can't be sure, though. Might have been me."
"Might have been you? How could--"
"Wobbly, myself. Mixed in my thinks. When I came to I was pretty busy putting my lunch," explained the other with simple realism. "One of Mr. Pullman's seats butted75 me in the stomach. They ain't upholstered as soft as you'd think to look at 'em. I went reeling around, looking for Miss I. O. W., she being alone, you know, and I thought she might need some looking after. And I had that idea of having seen her with her hand to her head dazed and running--yes; that's it, she was running. Wow!" said the young man fervently76. "She was a pretty thing! You don't suppose--" He turned hesitantly to the file of bodies, now decently covered with sheets.
For a grisly instant Banneker thought of the one mangled monstrosity--_that_ to have been so lately loveliness and charm, with deep fire in its eyes and perhaps deep tenderness and passion in its heart. He dismissed the thought as being against the evidence and entered the initials in his booklet.
"I'll look out for her," said he. "Probably she's forward somewhere."
Without respite77 he toiled78 until a long whistle gave notice of the return of the locomotive which had gone forward to meet the delayed special from Stanwood. Human beings were clinging about it in little clusters like bees; physicians, nurses, officials, and hospital attendants. The dispatcher from Stanwood listened to Banneker's brief report, and sent him back to Manzanita, with a curt79 word of approval for his work.
Banneker's last sight of the wreck, as he paused at the curve, was the helpful young man perched on the rear heap of wreckage which had been the observation car, peering anxiously into its depths ("Looking for I. O. W. probably," surmised80 the agent), and two commercial gentlemen from the smoker81 whiling away a commercially unproductive hiatus by playing pinochle on a suitcase held across their knees. Glancing at the vast, swollen82, blue-black billows rolling up the sky, Banneker guessed that their game would be shortly interrupted.
He hoped that the dead would not get wet.
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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bug
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| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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sleeper
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| n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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jumbled
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| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
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boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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pebble
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| n.卵石，小圆石 | |
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sputtered
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| v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的过去式和过去分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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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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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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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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postures
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| 姿势( posture的名词复数 )； 看法； 态度； 立场 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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41
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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props
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| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
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49
blotches
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| n.（皮肤上的）红斑，疹块( blotch的名词复数 )；大滴 [大片]（墨水或颜色的）污渍 | |
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shambles
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| n.混乱之处；废墟 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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52
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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54
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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55
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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56
berths
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| n.（船、列车等的）卧铺( berth的名词复数 )；（船舶的）停泊位或锚位；差事；船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 )；占铺位 | |
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57
courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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59
iodine
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| n.碘，碘酒 | |
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wreckage
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| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
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61
elicit
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| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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63
mitigate
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| vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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watchfulness
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| 警惕，留心； 警觉（性） | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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ointments
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| n.软膏( ointment的名词复数 )；扫兴的人；煞风景的事物；药膏 | |
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emollients
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| n.润滑剂，润肤剂( emollient的名词复数 ) | |
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roster
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| n.值勤表，花名册 | |
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butted
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| 对接的 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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smoker
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| n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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