Brockway

“ XIV WITH DENVER IN SIGHT
There was the usual early morning confusion in the aisle of the Ariadne when Brockway picked his way forward to section three over a litter of opened hand-bags, lately polished shoes, and unshod feet. He found the Burton section empty, with the porter putting the finishing touches to his morning's work of scene-shifting.
"Yes, sah; de gemman's in de washroom, an' de lady——"
"Is right here," said a voice at Brockway's elbow. "Good-morning, Mr. Frederick; how do you find yourself—or aren't you lost?" ”

“ When the train drew up to the platform at Beaver Brook, Brockway asked Gertrude if he should go and see if there were a message for her.
"No," she said, perversely; "let it find me, if it can."
It came, a minute later, by the hand of Conductor Halsey. She read it with a little frown of perplexity gathering between the straight brows.
"Do we live or die?" Brockway asked, crucially anxious to know what his friend had been able to do for him.
"Why, I don't understand it at all; it's simply Greek, after the other one. Papa says: 'Do not return on forenoon train. ”

“ When the train clattered in over the switches and stopped on the outer track of the Denver station platform, this last car was screened by the dimly lighted hulk of the Tadmor switched in to receive its lading. Brockway ran down the steps and swung Gertrude lightly to the platform; after which he put his arms about her and kissed her passionately.
"God knows when the next time will be," he said, with a sudden foreboding of evil; and then he took her arm and led her swiftly across to the private car, leaving the Burtons to go whither they would. ”

“ Gertrude, purposely losing the thread of Priscilla Beaswicke's remarks on the claims of theosophy to an unprejudiced hearing: "What makes you so quiet, Mr. Brockway? Tell me about your other adventures with the school-teachers—after you left Salt Lake City, you know."
Brockway, catching at the friendly straw with hope once more reviving: "Then you haven't forgotten—excuse me; Miss Beaswicke is speaking to you." And the door shuts in his face and leaves him again in outer darkness.
In the nature of things mundane, even the most leisurely dinner cannot last forever. ”

“ For a moment Brockway was tempted to answer four fools according to their folly. Then he bethought him that he had but now been seeking a pretext which would open the door of the private car. Here was a makeshift; a poor one, to be sure, but better than none. Wherefore, instead of quarrelling with the deputation, he rose with placatory phrases in his mouth.
"Very well; I'll see what can be done. But you must give me a little time; the scenery—" pointing to the monotonous landscape circling slowly with the onward sweep of the train—"is not exactly of the rear-platform variety yet." ”

“ The great engine lunged forward like a goaded animal, and Gertrude sat up very straight and clung to the reversing-lever when the cab began to lurch and sway. But she obeyed Brockway's directions promptly and implicitly.
"Don't be afraid of her," he said. "You have a clear track and a heavy rail." ”

“ Brockway had begun by being studiously deferential and placable, but the questions were growing rather personal.
"You are to understand nothing of the sort," he replied. "On the contrary, I am here solely because you saw fit to change your itinerary."
President Vennor was so wholly unused to anything like a retort from a junior and an inferior that he sat down in the opposite seat and felt mechanically in his pockets for a cigar. Brockway promptly capped the climax of audacity by offering one of his own, and the President took it absently. ”

“ Have you ever ridden on an engine, Mrs. Burton?"
"Many times," replied the marplot; and then she made small-talk desperately, while she tried to think of some way of warning her husband not to be surprised at the sudden change in Brockway's itinerary for the day. Nothing better suggesting, she struck hands with temerity when Burton appeared at the forward door with the conductor, and ordered Brockway to take Gertrude back to the observation-car.
"It's a shame that Miss Vennor should be missing the scenery," she said. "Go along with her and make yourself useful. ”

“ Brockway got upon his feet. "One moment, if you please," he protested. "There is nothing wrong—nothing different. Mr. Jordan and I were merely discussing the question of an extra limit on his own ticket; that was all."
"Oh."
"Ah."
"Where do we get dinner?"
"What time do we reach Denver?"
"Is there a dining-car on this train?"
Brockway answered the inquiries in sequence, and when the norm of quiet was restored, a soft-spoken little gentleman in a grass-cloth duster and a velvet skull-cap drew him away to the smoking-compartment.
"Let's go and smoke," he said ”

“ Brockway replied, flinging the damp towel into a corner, and brushing his hair as one who transmutes wrath into vigorous action.
"Find him a bit trying, don't you? What particular form does his mania take this morning?"
"It's the same old thing. I promised him, yesterday, I'd get the extension on his ticket, and now he says he won't leave Denver till it's done. He 'ah-protests' that I sha'n't go to Silver Plume with the party; wants me to stay in Denver and put in the day telegraphing."
"Of course, you'll do it; you do anything anybody asks you to." ”

“ Cousin Jeannette, I'm going to walk on the platform with Mr. Brockway. Come," she said; and they escaped before Mr. Vennor could overtake them.
Once outside, they paced up and down under the windows of the train, chatting reminiscently of four bright days a year agone, and shunning the intervening period as two people will whose lives have met and touched and gone apart again. At the second turn, they met Mrs. Dunham and Fleetwell; and at the third, the President, sandwiched between Hannah and Priscilla Beaswicke. Whereupon Brockway, scenting espionage, drew Gertrude away toward the engine. ”

“ Brockway, who is vainly endeavoring to persuade an elderly maiden lady to leave her canary in charge of the porter during the day: "That is central time you have, Mr. Tucker; mountain time is one hour slower. Careful, Mr. Perkins; let me take your grip. You won't need it to-day."
The Elderly Maiden Lady: "Now, Mr. Brockway, are you sure it'll be perfectly safe to leave Dicky with the porter?"
Mr. Somers, sotto voce in Brockway's ear: "Hang Dicky! Let's go to breakfast."
The Gadfly: "Mr. ah—Brockway, you will oblige me by sitting at my table. ”

“ The engineer waved them across the cab. "Make yourselves at home; the 926 belongs to you as long as you want to own her. Just you pre-empt Johnnie's box over there, Fred, and make the young lady comfortable."
Brockway stuck a propitiatory cigar into the pocket of the fireman's jumper, and proceeded to carry out his instructions. Before the tardy signal came, Gertrude was perched upon the high seat, with her skirts gathered up out of harm's way, and Brockway had fashioned a pad out of a bunch of waste and tied it upon the boiler-head brace at her feet. ”

“ Dunham came to his rescue.
"I suppose your occupation keeps you away from home a great deal, doesn't it?" she asked.
"It certainly would if I had a home," Brockway replied.
"Do you have to travel all the time?"
"Rather more than nine-tenths of it, I should say."
"How dreadfully tiresome it must become! Of course, when one is seeing things for the first time it is very interesting; but I should imagine the car-window point of view would become hackneyed in a very little while."
"It does; and it is pathetically unsatisfying if one care for anything more than a glimpse of things. ”

“ Brockway saw it was no use, and laughed good-naturedly. "You are a born detective, Mrs. Burton; I wouldn't be in Burton's shoes for a farm in the Golden Belt," he retorted. "How much did you really see, and how much did you take for granted?"
"I saw a young man, who didn't take the trouble to keep his emotions out of his face, marching up and down the platform with Miss Vennor on his arm. Then I saw an elderly gentleman pacing back and forth between two feminine chatterboxes, and trying to outgeneral the two happy people. Naturally, I want to know more. ”

“ But from the plateau where they were standing, the vista expands as if by magic. The mighty mountain at whose foot the train pauses becomes but a foothill, and just beyond it, in indescribable grandeur and majesty, rises the huge, snow-clad bulk of Gray's Peak, stupendous, awe-inspiring, dazzling the eye with its unspotted mantle of shimmering white, and slaying the sense of proportion with its immeasurable vastness.
Gertrude caught her breath, and Brockway stood uncovered beside her, silent and watchful. ”

“ But Gertrude demurred. "That would be too callously villanous," she objected. "Can't we divide with them?"
"And go away by ourselves with the spoils?"
"Yes, if you like."
"I do like. I know a place, and the way to get there. Are you good for a climb?"
Brockway possessed himself of the basket, spread a newspaper on the opposite seat, and began to make a very fair and equitable division of the eatables.
"I'm good for anything," she said; then she pulled off her gloves and helped him divide the luncheon.
When the train stopped at Graymont, Burton went forward to get the luncheon. ”

“ Vennor order dinner in the car, so I presume we shall make it our headquarters during the day."
Brockway reflected that the private car would doubtless be side-tracked on the spur near the telegraph office in the Union Depot, and wrote it down that prearrangement itself could do no more. When the train drew up at Bovalley a little later, he excused himself and ran quickly forward to board the Ariadne. Come what might, Burton must be over-persuaded; the thirty-odd must be given no chance to defeat the Heaven-born opportunity made possible by the pertinacity of the gadfly. ”

“ For a quarter of an hour or more, Brockway's friend in the Golden office had been neglecting his work and listening intently to the irrelevant chattering of his sounder. He heard Denver call Beaver Brook, and when the station in the canyon answered, he promptly grounded the wire and caught up his pen. The effect of this manœuvre was to short-circuit that particular wire at Golden, cutting off all stations beyond; but this the Denver operator could not know. As a result, the President's telegram got no farther than Golden, and Brockway's friend took it down as it was sent. ”

“ Dunham or Gertrude permitted to help him, though they both tried with charitable and praiseworthy perseverance, as thus:
Mrs. Dunham, in a desperate effort to ignore the Public Library: "I'm afraid all this doesn't interest you very much, Mr. Brockway. It's so fatally easy——"
Fleetwell, whose opinion touching a portion of the design has been contravened by Mr. Vennor: "I say, Cousin Jeannette, isn't the Sargent decoration for the staircase hall—" et sequentia, until Brockway sinks back into oblivion to come to the surface ten minutes later at a summons from the other side. ”

“ Look well up the mountain-side for a big bowlder facing the canyon; it's a picture, not a figure."
She followed his directions, grasping the hand-rails and leaning far out to get a wider view. Brockway wanted to put his arm around her and hold her, but not daring to, stood by to catch her if she should lose her balance. Presently the great bowlder circled into view, and she got a very satisfactory sight of the pictured mule on its face before a sudden swerve of the train swept it out of range. ”

“ Mile after mile of the level plain swept backward under the drumming wheels, and Brockway's heart made music within him because it had some little fragment of its desire. In order to see the track through the front window of the cab, he had to lean his elbow on the cushion beside her, and it brought them very near—nearer, he thought, than they would ever be again.
Gertrude was much too full of the magnitude of things to care to talk, but she was finally moved to ask another question.
"Are we really running along on the rails just like any well-behaved train? ”

“ They hurried down the platform arm-in-arm, and Gertrude was the first to speak.
"Didn't you think we were all going to be killed?"
"No; but I did think I should never forgive myself if anything happened to you."
"It wouldn't have been your fault. And I've had a glorious bit of distraction; I shall remember it as long as I live."
"Yes; you have actually driven a train fifty miles an hour," laughed Brockway, handing her up the steps of car Naught-fifty.
"I have; and now I shall go in and be scolded eighty miles an hour to pay for it. But I sha'n't mind that. ”

“ We have plenty of unlovelinesses, but fickleness isn't one of them."
"Forgive me," he said, humbly; "but it seems to me there is so little to hold you, and so much to turn you aside. I——"
A series of shrill shrieks from the locomotive in the valley below interrupted him, and he rose reluctantly. "They're calling us in; we'll have to go."
She took his arm and they ran down the steep declivity, across the small plateau, and so on to the bottom of the railway cutting. Just before they reached the train, Brockway asked if he should tell the Burtons. ”

“ A shrill whistle from the engine cut the sentence short, and Gertrude asked if they were coming to a station.
"Yes, it's Forks Creek, famous for its pies. Everybody eats pie at the Forks. Will you climb down from the heights of the sublime and go and eat pie with me?"
"Anything you say," she rejoined, laughing; and a few minutes later, John Burton the canny was scandalized to see the President's daughter walking up and down the narrow platform with the passenger agent, eating her half of an apple turnover which Brockway had bought and shared with her. ”