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We were seated on the fender or' cow-catcher, watching the majestic marshaling of the thunder-clouds over the mountain-tops, and enjoying to the full the excitement of the moment, when suddenly the wind blew a terrific gust, filling the air with dust and dry leaves, and threatening to carry us individually over the precipice.
On looking over a provincial paper, I find astounding rumors of ghosts appearing upon the track of a western railroad. Things clothed in the traditional white appear before the impartial cow-catcher, which divides them for the passage of the train, in the wake of which they immediately reappear in a full state of repair and posture of contempt.
I looked up quick-like and blest if there wasn't old Bill Buffalo a-pawin' and a-bellerin' and a-shakin' of his head, not thirty yards away! Soon as he see me look up he come chargin' down on me with his big head close to the ground like a locomotive cow-catcher. And me in that awkward state of dishabilly!" "What did you do, Mr. Smiley?" cried Nell in suspense.
"She is sitting on the cow-catcher of each and every train, and if I'm not there to meet her she'll disinherit me. Haven't you any sense?" Whereupon there were tears, apologies, and finally a council of war. It was Mrs. Carey who solved the problem. "All we have to do," she cried, "is to meet all the trains. Won't it be cute?" Carey didn't think so, but was afraid to express himself.
"But when we started back there were about ten million buffaloes on the track. If I had been heading into them with the cow-catcher I shouldn't have been afraid. But I had to back into them, and if I had crippled one it would have upset the tender." "Back her up," commanded Francis curtly, "and pull us out of here."
The "protected" train had proved a deathtrap, and by the time the line was clear every fourth man was killed or wounded. Only the engine, with the more severely wounded heaped in the cab and clinging to its cow-catcher and foot-rails, made good its escape.
The wheels grated on the track and my official friend leaped off the cow-catcher. "Here!" I shouted, "what's the finish of that story?" "I'll tell you the rest the next time I see you," he sang out, and so I don't know just how the story ended. Before Colonel Roosevelt drew the eyes of the world on British East Africa Nairobi was practically unheard of.
Three flat cars, loaded with bright-painted farming machines, were on the siding above the station, while, on the switch below, a huge freight engine that lacked its cow-catcher sat back upon its monstrous driving-wheels, motionless, solid, drawing long breaths that were punctuated by the subdued sound of its steam-pump clicking at exact intervals.
The first object that greeted Edgardo, as he rode up to the station on the arrival of the train, was the body of Burke the Slogger hanging on the cow-catcher; the second was the face of his deserted wife looking from the windows of a second-class carriage. A nameless terror seemed to have taken possession of Clarissa, Lady Selina's maid, as she rushed into the presence of her mistress.
It has to come right along there behind us, and I could jump on the cow-catcher if it came; but it can't come without an engine, and there isn't one in sight, and it's only two miles to your Junction, you say. That won't be anything of a walk. Go and get your hat-box." The hat-box was not all.
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