PAINTED ROCK
"I'll go back," said Bailey in a queer, tired voice.
They heard the grinding of the brake blocks, and the train slackened down.
Are you gettin' down?" said White, looking in the car.
"When she stops we are gettin' down," said Crowle.
They heard a voice outside. Bailey listened, and the words came to him, but not to Crowle.
"The East-bound express cracked a rail," said the voice, "my gang is puttin' in another."
"Ain't it dark?" said White.
"Never knew it so black," answered the section boss, who had been speaking. "You want one lantern to find another. 'Tis a night for two niggers to lose touch of each other, ain't it?"
And the car stopped dead.
"Ain't we goin' to draw up a bit farther?" asked White. "Why, my caboose and half the passenger car's on it still."
"Waal, you won't go through, I reckon,"
122
