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There was so much hilarity in this gathering for a funeral, indeed, and so much profanity, denunciation, and threat issuing out of the coffin box for Seth broke out again the minute they moved him that the baggage-man aboard the train demurred on receiving the shipment.
Even the promise of a fight at least of a blow or two delivered in the gray gloom of the baggage-man's door did not turn David from his quest. When he returned, a few minutes later, two or three sympathetic friends were nursing the baggage-man back into consciousness. He was about to pass the group when some one gripped his arm, and a familiar and joyous chuckle sounded in his ear.
The train was well under way, and the baggage-man had sat down to a small table with his back toward them. He had leaped to his feet now, his face furious, and with another demoniac curse he gave the coal skuttle a kick that sent it with a bang to the far end of the car. The table was littered with playing cards. "Damn 'em they beat me this time in ten plays!" he yelled.
"Don't kid me; this is important." "Shure, I am, but I don't want any accident insurance. I took a chance and I'm game." "Have you any daughters?" "Two of them. But what's it to ye?" "Suppose one of them disappeared?" The baggage-man seized Anderson by the shoulder; his eyes dilated; with a catch in his voice he cried: "Love o' God, speak out! What are ye drivin' at?"
"From the so-called cow-tree," said Bess soberly, "which is found quite commonly in the jungles of Brazil. You score the bark and the wood immediately beneath it with an axe, or machette, insert a sliver of clean wood, and the milky sap trickles forth into your cup " "How ridiculous!" interposed Nan, while the baggage-man burst into appreciative laughter.
The baggage-man closed the door, the conductor gave the signal to pull out, and the train departed, leaving Seth Craddock on the truck, the rather shamed and dampened citizens standing around. They concluded they would have to hang him, after all their trouble for a more romantic, picturesque, and unusual exit.
"Let's let him out." "Oh, no! we mustn't not till we've asked leave." "Well, who'll we ask?" demanded Bess. "The baggage-man, of course," said Nan, jumping up. "I believe he's hungry, too." "Who? the baggage-man?" giggled Bess. "The puppy, of course," returned Nan. "We'll feed him some of our pie," suggested Bess. "He ought to have some warm milk," Nan said seriously.
The other passengers took to laughing also, and fun raged fast and furious, until the benevolent baggage-man, seeing how matters stood, brought a small pocket-glass and handed it around to the young men. They suddenly stopped laughing, rushed wildly for the baggage-car, washed their faces, and amused and instructed each other during the remainder of the trip with some eloquent flashes of silence.
These broke in upon the solitude of the joint station-master and baggage-man and switch-tender with just sufficient frequency to keep him in a state of uncharitable irritation and unrest. To-night Bartley was the sole intruder, and he sat by the stove wrapped in a cloud of rebellious memories, when one side of a colloquy without made itself heard. "What?" Some question was repeated.
The door of the forward car stuck and after a moment somebody came and slid it back a crack. "Hullo, young ladies!" exclaimed the brakeman, who looked out. "What do you want forward, here?" "We want to speak to the baggage-man, please," Nan said promptly. "Hey, Jim!" shouted the brakeman. "Here's a couple of ladies to see you.