"So you're scandalized,"said she,punishing him instantly."I reckon it does take a decent girl to shock you."And while she stood laughing at him with robust irony,poor Lin began to stammer that he meant no offence."Why,to be sure you didn't!"said she."But I do enjoy you real thoroughly.""Well,m'm,"protested the wincing cow-puncher,driven back to addressing her as "ma'am,""we ain't used--""Don't tangle yourself up worse,Mr.McLean.No more am I 'used.'I have never slept in an empty in my life.And why is that?Just because I've never had to.And there's the difference between you boys and us.You do lots of things you don't like,and tell us.And we put up with lots of things we don't like,but we never let you find out.I know you meant no offense,"she continued,heartily,softening towards her crushed protector,"because you're a gentleman.And lands!I'm not complaining about an empty.That will be rich--if I can have the door shut."Upon this she went out to view the cars,Mr.McLean hovering behind her with a devoted,uneasy countenance,and frequently muttering "Shucks!"while the agent and I followed with a lamp,for the dark was come.With our help she mounted into the first car,and then into the next,taking the lamp.And while she scanned the floor and corners,and slid the door back and forth,Lin whispered in my ear:"Her name's Jessamine.She told me.Don't yu'like that name?"So I answered him,"Yes,very much,"thinking that some larger flower--but still a flower--might have been more apt.
"Nobody seems to have slept in these,"said she,stepping down;and on learning that even the tramp avoided Separ when he could,she exclaimed,"What lodging could be handier than this!Only it would be so cute if you had a Louavull an'Nashvull car,"said she."Twould seem like my old Kentucky home!"And laughing rather sweetly at her joke,she held the lamp up to read the car's lettering."'D.and R.G.'Oh,that's a way-off stranger!I reckon they're all strange."She went along the train with her lamp."Yes,'B.and M.'and 'S.C.and P.'Oh,this is rich!Nate will laugh when he hears.I'll choose 'C.,B.and Q.'That's a little nearer my country.What time does the stage start?Porter,please wake 'C.,B.and Q.'at six,sharp,"said she to Lin.
From this point of the evening on,I think of our doings--their doings--with a sort of unchanging homesickness.Nothing like them can ever happen again,I know;for it's all gone--settled,sobered,and gone.And whatever wholesomer prose of good fortune waits in our cup,how I thank my luck for this swallow of frontier poetry which I came in time for!
To arrange some sort of bed for her was the next thing,and we made a good shake-down--clean straw and blankets and a pillow,and the agent would have brought sheets;but though she would not have these,she did not resist--what do you suppose?--a looking-glass for next morning!And we got a bucket of water and her valise.It was all one to her,she said,in what car Lin and I put up;and let it be next door,by all means,if it pleased him to think he could watch over her safety better so;and she shut herself in,bidding us good-night.We began spreading straw and blankets for ourselves,when a whistle sounded far and long,and its tone rose in pitch as it came.
"I'll get him to run right to the corrals,"said the agent,"so the sheriff can tell the boys he's not after them.""That'll convince 'em he is,"said Lin."Stop him here,or let him go through."But we were not to steer the course that events took now.The rails of the main line beside us brightened in wavering parallels as the headlight grew down upon us,and in this same moment the shootings at the corrals chorused in a wild,hilarious threat.The burden of the coming engine heavily throbbed in the air and along the steel,and met and mixed with the hard,light beating of hoofs.The sounds approached together like a sort of charge,and I stepped between the freight-cars,where I heard Lin ordering the girl inside to lie down flat,and could see the agent running about in the dust,flapping his arms to signal with as much coherence as a chicken with its head off.I had very short space for wonder or alarm.The edge of one of my freight-cars glowed suddenly with the imminent headlight,and galloping shots invaded the place.The horsemen flew by,overreaching,and leaning back and lugging against their impetus.They passed in a tangled swirl,and their dust coiled up thick from the dark ground and luminously unfolded across the glare of the sharp-halted locomotive.Then they wheeled,and clustered around it where it stood by our cars,its air-brake pumping deep breaths,and the internal steam humming through its bowels;and I came out in time to see Billy Lusk climb its front with callow,enterprising shouts.That was child's play;and the universal yell now raised by the horsemen was their child's play too;but the whole thing could so precipitately reel into the fatal that my thoughts stopped.I could only look when I saw that they had somehow recognized the man on the engine for a sheriff.Two had sprung from their horses and were making boisterously toward the cab,while Lin McLean,neither boisterous nor joking,was going to the cab from my side,with his pistol drawn,to keep the peace.The engineer sat with a neutral hand on the lever,the fireman had run along the top of the coal in the tender and descended and crouched somewhere,and the sheriff,cool,and with a good-natured eye upon all parties,was just beginning to explain his errand,when some rider from the crowd cut him short with an invitation to get down and have a drink.At the word of ribald endearment by which he named the sheriff,a passing fierceness hardened the officer's face,and the new yell they gave was less playful.
