CHAPTER VI
WAMPUS SPEEDS
"So this is Albuquerque," observed Patsy Doyle, as they alighted fromthe train. "Is it a big town playing peek-a-boo among those hills,Uncle John, or is this really all there is to the place?"
"It's a pretty big town, my dear. Most of the houses are back on theprairie, but fortunately our hold is just here at the depot."
It was a quaint, attractive building, made of adobe cement, in theancient mission style; but it proved roomy and extremely comfortable.
"Seems to me," whispered Myrtle to Beth, "we're high up on themountains, even yet."
"So we are," was the reply. "We're just between Glorietta Pass and theGreat Continental Divide. But the steepest of the Rockies are behindus, and now the slopes are more gradual all the way to California. Howdo you like it, dear?"
"Oh, the mountains are grand!" exclaimed Myrtle. "I had never imaginedanything so big and stately and beautiful." The other girls had seenmountains before, but this was their friend's first experience, andthey took much pleasure in Myrtle's enthusiastic delight over all shesaw.
Adjoining the hotel was a bazaar, in front of which sat squatted uponthe ground two rows of Mojave Indians, mostly squaws, with theircurious wares spread out for sale upon blankets. There must havebeen a score of them, and they exhibited odd pottery ornaments ofindistinguishable shapes, strings of glass beads and beadwork bags,and a few really fine jardinieres and baskets. After the girls hadbeen to their rooms and established themselves in the hotel theyhurried out to interview the Indians, Myrtle Dean supporting herselfby her crutches while Patsy and Beth walked beside her. The lame girlseemed to attract the squaws at once, and one gave her a bead necklacewhile another pressed upon her a small brown earthenware fowl withwhite spots all over it. This latter might have been meant torepresent a goose, an ostrich or a guinea hen; but Myrtle wasdelighted with it and thanked the generous squaw, who responded merelywith a grunt, not understanding English. A man in a wide sombrero whostood lazily by observed the incident and said:
"Don't thank the hag. She's selfish. The Mojaven think it brings luckto have a gift accepted by a cripple."
Myrtle flushed painfully.
"I suppose my crutches make me look more helpless than I really am,"she whispered to her friends as they moved away. "But they're such ahelp in getting around that I'm very grateful to have them, and as Iget stronger I can lay them aside and not be taken for a cripple anymore."
The air was delightfully invigorating here in the mountains, yet itwas not at all cold. The snow, as Uncle John had predicted, had allbeen left behind them. After dinner they took a walk through thepretty town and were caught in the dark before they could get back.The twilights are very brief in Albuquerque.
"This is a very old town," remarked Uncle John. "It was founded by aSpanish adventurer named Cabrillo in the seventeenth century, longbefore the United States came into existence. But of course it neveramounted to anything until the railroad was built."
Next day they were sitting in a group before the hotel when a man wasseen approaching them with shuffling steps. Uncle John looked at himclosely and Mumbles leaped from Patsy's lap and rushed at the strangerwith excited barks.
"Why, it's Wampus," said Mr. Merrick. "The car must have arrived."
Wampus caught up the baby dog and held it under his arm while he tookhis cap off and bowed respectfully to his employer.
"He an' me, we here," he announced.
"Who is 'he,' Wampus?"
"Aut'mob'l'."
"When did you arrive?"
"Half hour ago. He on side track."
"Very good. You have made capital time, for a freight train. Let us goat once and get the car unloaded."
Wampus hesitated, looking sheepish.
"I been arrest," he said.
"Arrested! For what?"
"I make speed. They not like it. They arrest me--_Me_--Wampus!" Hestraightened his slim little form with an assumption of dignity.
"I knew it," sighed the Major. "I decided he was a speed fiend thefirst time I saw him."
"But--dear me!" said Uncle John; "how could you be arrested forspeeding when the automobile was on a fiat car?"
Wampus glanced over his shoulder. Two railroad men had followed himand were now lounging against the porch railing. One had his right eyebandaged while the other carried one arm in a sling. Both scowled asthey eyed the Canadian fixedly.
"Freight train make pretty slow time," began the chauffeur. "I knowyou in hurry, so freight train he make me nervous. I say polite toconductor I like to go faster. He laugh. I say polite to brakeman wemust go faster. He make abusing speech. I climb into engine an' saypolite to engineer to turn on steam. He insult me. So I put my footon him an' run engine myself. I am Wampus. I understan' engine--allkinds. Brakeman he swear; he swear so bad I put him off train.Conductor must have lump of coal in eye to keep quiet. Fireman he jus'smile an' whistle soft an' say nothing; so we friends. When I say'shovel in coal,' he shovel. When we pass stations quick like, hewhistle with engine loud. So now we here an' I been arrest."
Patsy tittered and stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth. Uncle Johnfirst chuckled and then looked grave. The Major advanced to Wampus andsoberly shook his hand.
"You're a brave man, sir, for a chauffeur," he said. "I congratulateyou,"
Wampus still looked uneasy.
"I been arrest," he repeated.
Uncle John beckoned the railroad men to come forward.
"Is this story true?" he asked.
"Most of it, sir," answered the conductor. "It's only by the mercy ofProvidence we're here alive. This scoundrel held up the whole crewand ran away with the engine. We might have had a dozen collisions orsmash-ups, for he went around curves at sixty miles an hour. We'd cutour train in two, so as to pull half of it at a time up the grade atLamy, and so there were only six cars on this end of it. The otherhalf is seventy miles back, and part of what we have here ought tohave been left at the way stations. I can't make out, sir, whetherit's burglary, or highway robbery or arson an' murder he's guilty of,or all of 'em; but I've telegraphed for instructions and I'll hold hima prisoner until the superintendent tells me what to do with him."
Mr. Merrick was very sober now.
"The matter is serious," he said. "This man is in my employ, but I didnot hire him to steal a railway train or fight its crew. Not badlyhurt, I hope, sir?"
"My eye's pretty bad," growled the conductor. "Tom, here, thought hisarm was broken, at first; but I guess it's only sprained."
"How about the brakeman he threw off the train?"
"Why, we were not going fast, just then, and it didn't hurt him. Wesaw him get up and shake his fist at the robber. If he ever meets Mr.Wampus again he'll murder him."
"Come with me to the telegraph office and I'll see what I can do tostraighten this out," said Mr. Merrick briskly. On the way he remarkedto the conductor: "I'm sorry I let Wampus travel alone. He's justa little bit affected in his mind, you know, and at times isn'tresponsible for what he does."
The conductor scratched his head doubtfully.
"I suspected he was crazy," he replied, "and that's why I didn't hurthim. But if he's crazy he's the most deliberate loonatic I ever runacrost."
The superintendent had just wired instructions to put the outlaw injail when Mr. Merrick reached the telegraph office, but after an hourspent in sending messages back and forth a compromise was affected andthe little millionaire had agreed to pay a goodly sum to the companyby way of damages and to satisfy the crew of the freight train--whichhe succeeded in doing by a further outlay of money.
"You're not worth all this bother," said Mr. Merrick to the humbledWampus, when the final settlement had been made, "but chauffeurs arescarce in Albuquerque and I can't be delayed. Never, sir, while youare in my employ, must you allow yourself to be guilty of such an actagain!"
Wampus sighed.
"Never," he promised, "will I ride by freight train again. Send car byexpress. I am Wampu
s. Freight train he make me nervous."
The automobile was quickly unloaded and at once Wampus set to work toget it in running order. He drove it to the hotel at about sundownand Mr. Merrick told the girls to be ready to start after an earlybreakfast the next morning.
"Which way do we go?" asked the Major.
"We'll have a talk with Wampus this evening and decide," said UncleJohn.
"Don't leave out the Grand Canyon!" begged Patsy.
"Nor the Petrified Forests." added Beth. "And couldn't we visit theMoki Indian reservation?"
"Those things may be well enough in their way," observed the Major,"but is their way our way? That's the question. The one thing we musttake into consideration is the matter of roads. We must discover whichroad is the best and then take it. We're not out of the mountains yet,and we shall have left the railroad, the last vestige of civilization,behind us."
But the conference evolved the fact, according to Wampus, that thebest and safest roads were for a time along the line of the Santa Fe,directly west; and this would enable them to visit most of the scenesthe girls were eager to see.
"No boulevard in mountain anywhere," remarked Wampus; "but road hegood enough to ride on. Go slow an' go safe. I drive 'Autocrat' fromhere to Los Angeles blindfold."
With this assurance they were obliged to be content, and an eagerand joyful party assembled next morning to begin the journey so longlooked forward to. The landlord of the hotel, a man with a carewornface, shook his head dismally and predicted their return toAlbuquerque within twenty-four hours.
"Of course people _do_ make the trip from here to the coast," he said;"but it's mighty seldom, and they all swear they'll never do it again.It's uncomfortable, and it's dangerous."
"Why?" asked Uncle John.
"You're headed through a wild country, settled only by Mexicans,Indians, and gangs of cowboys still worse. The roads are somethingawful. That man Wampus is an optimist, and will tackle anything andthen be sorry for it afterward. The towns are scattered from here on,and you won't strike a decent meal except at the railway stations.Taking all these things into consideration, I advise you to make yourheadquarters here for the winter."
"Thank you," returned Mr. Merrick pleasantly. "It's too late for us toback out now, even if we felt nervous and afraid, which I assure youwe do not."
"We are not looking for excessive comfort on this journey, you know,"remarked Patsy. "But thank you for your warning, sir. It has given usgreat pleasure; for if there were no chance of adventure before us weshould all be greatly disappointed."
Again the landlord shook his head.
"Right?" asked Wampus, at the wheel.
"Go ahead," said Mr. Merrick, and slowly the big car started upon itsjourney into the Golden West.
The air was keen and bracing, but not chilly. The sunshine flooded thelandscape on every side. All the windows of the limousine had beenlowered.
Myrtle Dean had been established in one corner of the broad back seat,where she nestled comfortably among the cushions. Uncle John satbeside her, with Beth and the Major on the seat on front. There weretwo folding chairs that could be used on occasion, and the back seateasily accommodated three, the "Autocrat" being a seven passenger car;but Patsy was perched in front beside Wampus, which was really thechoicest seat of all, so there was ample room inside to "swing a cat,"as the Major stated--if anyone had cared to attempt such a feat. Ofcourse the wee Mumbles was in Patsy's lap, and he seemed to haveovercome his first aversion of Wampus and accepted the littlechauffeur into the circle of his favored acquaintances. Indeed, theysoon became fast friends.
On leaving the town Wampus turned into a smooth, hard wagon road thatran in zigzag fashion near the railroad grade. The car bowled alongright merrily for some twenty miles, when the driver turned to theright and skimmed along a high plateau. It was green and seemedfertile, but scarcely a farmhouse could they see, although the clearair permitted a broad view.
"He up hill now all way to Continental Divide," said Wampus to Patsy;"then he go down hill long time."
"It doesn't seem to be much uphill," returned the girl, "and the roadis very good."
"We make time here," observed the driver. "By'm-by we find rock an'bad road. Then we go slow."
The Major was watching the new chauffeur carefully, and despite hisdismal forebodings the man seemed not at all reckless but handled hiscar with rare skill. So the critic turned to his brother-in-law andasked:
"Is it fully decided which way we shall go?"
"I've left it to Wampus and the girls," was the reply. "On accountof our little invalid here we shall take the most direct route toCalifornia. It isn't a short route, at that. On Beth's account weshall visit the Moki and Navajo reservations, and on Patsy's accountwe're going by way of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. Wampus says heknows every inch of the road, so for my part I'm content to be just apassenger."
"Which remark," said the Major, "indicates that I'm to be just apassenger also. Very well, John; I'm willing. There may be troubleahead of us, but to-day is so magnificent that it's wise to forgeteverything but the present."
Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John Page 6