Part 34 (1/2)

In the meantime the side wheels had dropped off the station platform and the coach had righted itself, but in spite of all that Pinkey and Wallie could do the leaders swung sharply to the left and dragged the wheel horses after them down the railroad track.

When the wheels struck the ties, Miss Mattie Gaskett bounded into the air as if she had been sitting upon a steel coil that had suddenly been released. She was wearing a tall-crowned hat of a style that had not been in vogue for some years and as she struck the roof it crackled and went shut like an accordeon, so that it was of an altogether different shape when she dropped back to the seat.

”Oh, my!” she exclaimed, blinking in a dazed fas.h.i.+on as she felt of her hat.

Old Mr. Penrose, who had elongated his naturally long neck preparatory to looking out the window, also struck the roof and with such force that his neck was bent like the elbow in a stove-pipe when he came down. He said such a bad word that Aunt Lizzie Philbrick exclaimed: ”Oh, how dread-ful!” and asked him to remember where he was.

Mr. Penrose replied that he did not care where he was--that if her neck had been driven into her shoulders a foot she would say something, too.

Mrs. J. Harry Stott and Mr. Budlong, who had b.u.mped heads so hard that the thud was heard, were eyeing each other in an unfriendly fas.h.i.+on as they felt of their foreheads, waiting for the lump.

Mr. Stott, who was still patting his lip with his handkerchief, declared:

”Such roads as these r.e.t.a.r.d the development of a county.”

”Undoubtedly,” agreed Mr. Appel, getting up out of the aisle. ”They are a disgrace!”

”We are going _away_ from the mountains--I don't understand----”

Mr. Stott smiled rea.s.suringly at Mrs. Budlong and told her that Wallie and Pinkey, of course, knew the road.

”I don't care,” she insisted, stoutly, ”I believe something's wrong. We are going awfully fast, and if I thought it was as rough as this all the way I should prefer to walk.”

”You must remember that you are now in the West, Mrs. Budlong,” Mr.

Stott replied in a kind but reproving tone, ”and we cannot expect----”

Mrs. Budlong, who had just bitten her tongue, retorted sharply:

”We certainly could expect a more comfortable conveyance than this. If I live to get out I shall never step foot in it again.”

”When we stop at the post-office,” said Mr. Budlong in a tone of decision as he clung to the window frame, ”I shall hire a machine and go out--the rest of you can do as you like.”

If there was dissatisfaction inside the coach it was nothing at all compared to the excitement on the box as the horses galloped down the railroad track. The leaders' mouths might have been bound in cast-iron for all the attention they paid to the pull on their bits, although Pinkey and Wallie were using their combined strength in their efforts to stop the runaways.

”Them dudes must be gittin' an awful churnin',” said Pinkey through his clenched teeth.

”We'll be lucky if we are not ditched,” Wallie panted as he braced his feet.

”Wouldn't that be some rank! Even if we 'rim a tire' we got to swing off this track, for there's a culvert somewheres along here and----”

”Pink!”

Pinkey had no time to look, but he knew what the sharp exclamation meant.

”Pull my gun out--lay it on the seat--I can stop 'em if I must.”

Pinkey's face was white under its sunburn and his jaw was set.