CHAPTER X
BOB DOES A KIND ACT
As the stranger recounted this exciting adventure, Bob's eyes grewlarger and larger, and his mouth gaped in wonder. Many a time had heread in story-books of similar attacks by Indians, but the thought thathe was actually gazing at a man who had been through such an ordealseemed too delightful to be true. And so reverentially admiring was hismanner toward his travelling companion that the other couldn't but smilegood-naturedly.
"Where did you say that place was?" inquired Bob, after a silence ofmany minutes, as he retold to himself the story of the scar and picturedthe scene before his mind's eye.
"Fairfax."
"What part of the state is that?"
"It's about the middle, as east and west goes, but nearer the northernthan the southern border."
"Are there--are there any ranches near Fairfax now, do you suppose?"
"I reckon so, though it's more than seven years since I came East."
"Aren't you ever going back there?" inquired Bob, in a tone which saidplainly that it was beyond his understanding how a man could give uplife on a ranch and settle down to the very ordinary, prosaic life ofthe East.
For a moment the man looked at Bob searchingly, and then replied:
"I reckon that it's better for my health here in the East."
But the significance of this remark was lost on Bob. For a few minuteshe was silent, the expression on his face, however, indicating that hewas thinking earnestly, and at last the cause of his deliberation wasexplained in his question:
"Do you think there are any Indians around Fairfax now?"
"Not the kind there was in the early days when I was out there. Thegovernment has tried to make them like white people, and now the Injunsthat you would find are either lazy, or they have deteriorated intohalf-breeds. Once in a while some of the bucks go on a rampage, but notvery often."
"I think I'll go to Fairfax," announced Bob after another period ofdeliberation. "You don't know any one out there with whom you think Icould get in to work, do you?"
"No, I can't say as I do, and besides a recommendation from me wouldn'thelp you any. But I think so long as you have no particular section ofthe state in mind, that Fairfax would be as good as any."
Bob lost no time in taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by hiscompanion for asking him about the customs of the cowboys and life on aranch in general, and many were the valuable pointers the stranger gavehim, some of which Bob afterwards remembered, but more of which heforgot.
Between Bob's inquiries and the stories which his travelling companionnarrated, the morning passed quickly, and what had loomed before the boyas long and dreary hours, seemed but a minute, so entertaining was thestranger.
True to his word, when the train pulled into the station where the stopwas made for those passengers who desired to get lunch, the strangerinsisted upon Bob getting out and eating with him. And Bob found thatthe man's appetite was just as keen when he was paying for his food, aswhen he was eating that provided by others.
After the return to the car, the interesting stories were resumed, andBob had little opportunity to notice the region through which he waspassing, new and unusual to him as was its scenery, save when hisattention was called to some striking feature by his companion.
"It won't be long now before we reach Chicago," remarked the man.
"No, I suppose not," admitted Bob with a sigh. "I only wish you weregoing out to Fairfax with me."
"Oh, well, you'll find, more likely than not, that some of thepassengers on the train you take are bound for Oklahoma, and they willprobably be able to afford you more assistance and information than I."
The suggestion made by Bob about returning to Oklahoma seemed to make adeep impression upon the stranger, and he lapsed into silence from whichhe only roused himself after the train had pulled into the station atChicago, when he jumped up suddenly, grabbed Bob by the shoulder, shookhim with a gentle roughness, and murmured:
"Good luck to you, boy, and whatever you do, be straight," and rushedfrom the car, leaving Bob bewildered by the abruptness of his departure.
Despite the evident mystery which hung over his travelling companion,Bob had felt more at ease when he was with him, and it was with a senseof loss that he saw him leave the car, for the boy had hoped that hewould accompany him to the railway offices while he got his pass, andhe had even dared to think he might be able to persuade him to make thevisit to Mrs. Cameron with him.
But the man's departure had shattered his hopes, and Bob, with a feelingof great loneliness, mechanically followed the other passengers from thecar out upon the wide platform. His feeling of isolation was made evenmore poignant by the hearty greetings which sounded all around him, asone after another of the people who had arrived on the same train weremet by their friends or families.
Following the crowd, he passed through the station out onto thesidewalk. There he stood for a moment, searching the windows of thebuildings across the street for the name of the railway offices to whichMr. Perkins had directed him.
With little difficulty he spied great gilt letters which formed thewords "Grand Pacific Railway," and picking his way carefully through thethrong of carriages, automobiles and trucks, which were passing up anddown the street, he soon reached the building, and was on the way to theoffices in the elevator.
Entering one of the doors, he beheld several handsomely polished desks,at which busy men were seated.
Who the proper person was to whom to present his card for a pass, Bobdid not know, but after scrutinizing the faces of the various men in theoffice, he selected one who seemed kind and pleasant, and was making hisway toward him, when he was confronted by a boy several inches smallerthan he was, clad in a green uniform trimmed with gold braid, whodemanded insolently:
"Here, you! Where do you think you are going? Who do you want to see?"
"I don't know exactly."
During this interchange of words, the office-boy had been scanning Boband his threadbare clothes contemptuously. And at the lad's reply, helaughed outright, adding:
"Well, if you don't know who you want to see, you can't come in here."
"But I want to get a pass for Fairfax, Oklahoma," protested Bob.
"_You_ get a pass! Say, are you crazy? Only the general managers and theother high officers travel on passes."
"But Mr. Perkins told me to come here," asserted Bob.
To what lengths this determination of the office-boy to get rid of Bobwould have gone there is no knowing, for the official whose desk wasnearest the railing in front of which Bob stood had been attracted bythe unusual occurrence, and as he heard Mr. Perkins' name spoken, he gotup, and beckoning to Bob, asked:
"What did you say about Mr. Perkins?"
"I said he told me to come here to get a pass to Fairfax, Oklahoma. Thatis, he didn't say Fairfax," added Bob truthfully, "he just said I was toget it to any place in Oklahoma where I wanted to go, and I have decidedI want to go to Fairfax."
"What is your name?"
"Bob Chester."
"Well, Mr. Perkins has sent us no instructions for issuing you a pass,and until he does, we cannot do anything for you."
And turning on his heel the man walked back to his desk, while theoffice-boy grinned in delight.
Bob, however, was not to be disposed of so easily, and putting his handin his pocket, he drew out the card given him by the railroad president,and said:
"But Mr. Perkins gave me instructions to give to you."
The man who had left his desk before paid no attention to Bob's remark,however, and the boy was wondering if, after all, the card would be ofno service to him when suddenly the door opened and in walked theporter who had drawn upon himself the anger of the railroad president,the night before, by his treatment of Bob.
As the darky entered, one of the clerks happened to be passing the rail,and he exclaimed:
"Well, Thomas Jefferson, what do you want here?"
"Ah come to get my pa
y. Ah done been discharged."
"You discharged?" repeated the other incredulously.
"That's what, and by the 'old man' hisself."
"Why?"
"For not treating this hyar gemmen wid de respec' Mr. Perkins thought Iought to when he set hisself down in my parlah cyar, when his ticketdone call for the chair cyar."
The tone in which the porter made his reply was so loud that no one inthe office could fail to hear it, and as the officials had alreadyreceived instructions by wire to pay off the darky in full upon hisarrival, when they learned that the shabbily-clad boy standing beforethe rail was the cause of the discharge, they evinced a very livelyinterest in him.
"The kid was just up here trying to get a pass he said Mr. Perkins hadtold him to call for," returned the man who had dismissed Bob soabruptly.
"If the gemmen says so, den you'd better give it to him, if you-alldon't want to get what Ah got."
Deeming the time had come for again calling attention to his card, Bobexclaimed:
"Mr. Perkins told me I was to present this, when I asked for the pass."
Reaching out his hand for the piece of pasteboard, the man who hadrefused him before, scanned it hurriedly, and said:
"You should have given me this in the first place. You see, we don'tissue many passes now, and we are obliged to be very careful." And,calling to one of his clerks, he gave him instructions for making outthe pass to Fairfax, after having learned from Bob that that was thedestination to which he wished to go.
"You'd better sit down," said the official, "because it will take a fewminutes to get it ready."
Bob was not thinking of himself, however. The idea troubled him of theporter's being discharged on his account, and after a few moments'deliberation, he called to the man who had given the instructions forthe writing of his pass, and asked:
"Do you think if I should write a note to Mr. Perkins, that he wouldchange his mind about discharging this man? I don't like to think heshould have got into trouble on my account. You see, I don't know muchabout travelling, and I didn't know a parlor car from a chair car."
Surprised at this consideration for a fellow in a boy so young, theofficial smiled as he replied:
"I shouldn't be surprised if Mr. Perkins would think about it, if youasked him. He seems to have taken a great fancy to you."
"Then if you will give me a piece of paper, I will write to him."
And when the writing material was provided, Bob, in his crude, boyishhand, wrote:
"MR. PERKINS: You have been very kind to me, but I am sorry you discharged the porter. I wish you would take him back. Please, Mr. Perkins. From your friend, BOB CHESTER."
In open-mouthed wonder, the porter listened to the conversation betweenBob and the official of the railway, and when the note had been written,and was read aloud by the latter, the darky exclaimed:
"Mistah Bob, you sho'ly am kind. Ah'll take that note and go to seeMistah Perkins mahself, and now if you-all would like to see Chicago alittle before you take your train, Ah'll surely be most glad to take you'round."