CHAPTER VI
Some Account of what I do and think the first Day alone: with aDiscovery by Kaiser at the End.
I woke up with a start in the morning, thinking that it was all a baddream; then I knew it wasn't, and wished it were; and next I was veryglad to hear the blizzard still roaring as hard as ever, which mayseem odd to you. But the fact is that I had thought a long time afterI went to bed and had decided on two things--first, that I was safefrom the robbers as long as the storm lasted, and, second and moreimportant, that I had a plan which might serve to keep them away for awhile at least after the storm stopped. I got up and looked out of thewindow, but I might as well have looked into a haystack for all I saw.I could not even see the houses on the other side of the street.
I went down, said good-morning to the cat and dog, and started thefire. It was colder; I peeped at the thermometer through the window,and saw it was a dozen degrees below zero. I found the stock at thebarn all right and cheerful; the chickens were down making breakfastof what I had given them for supper, all except Crazy Jane, who hadfinished eating and was trying to get out of the barn, maybe thinkingthat she could make a nest in a snowbank, or could scratch forangleworms.
After I had finished the barn-work I went in and got breakfast. Istarted a fire in the kitchen and got a better meal than I had thenight before. I went down cellar after some potatoes, and noticed thatthere were a plenty of them; with squashes, pumpkins, and othervegetables; all of which I knew before, but I observed that suchthings looked different to me now. I couldn't count much on thepumpkins because I didn't know how to make pumpkin pie, but I knewthat the cow would be very glad to get them without their being madeinto pie. "It would be funny," I said, out loud, as if there weresomebody to hear, "if cows should find out some day that pumpkins arebetter in pies and farmers should have to fix them that way beforethey would eat them."
I found that I felt much better about the situation than I had thenight before, though, of course, I still wished with all my heart thatI was out of it all, and thought every minute what a fool I was tohave acted the way I did. But there were so many things to do that Idid not have time to worry very much, which I believe was all thatkept me from going crazy.
After breakfast I decided that the first thing I had best do was tolook up the gun question. I found Sours's rifle in a closet. It wasnot loaded, but there was a box of cartridges on a shelf, and I wipedout the barrel and filled the magazine. It was fifteen-shot andforty-five caliber, and seemed like a good gun. I stood it under thecounter in the office and out of sight behind an old coat. In thedrawer of the desk was a revolver. It was a thirty-eight caliber, andpretty big to carry, but I thought it might be handy to have, so Istuffed it in my pocket.
Taggart's hardware store was two doors toward the railroad from thehotel, but the sidewalk was so covered with snow, and the wind sweptdown the street with such fury, that it seemed next to impossible toget there. But I was anxious to see about the weapons, so I went outthe back door and crept along close to the rear of the buildings tillI reached it.
The door was locked, but I could see through a window that a box hadbeen recently broken open; but, as there were no guns in sight, Iconcluded that the men had probably carried them over to the depot. Itried to see this through the driving snow, but could not, so I didnot dare to start out to find it, knowing how easy it is to becomeconfused and lost in such a storm.
As I stood back of the store I thought once that I heard the whistleof a locomotive; then I knew of course it was only the wind. "It'll bea long time before you hear any such music as that," I said to myself.There was nothing which would have sounded quite so good to me.
I was glad to get back to the house, where I could draw a breath ofair not full of powdered snow. I spent some time calking up cracksaround the windows, where the snow blew in. While I was doing this itsuddenly flashed into my mind, what if I should lose track of thedays of the month and week? I thought I would write down every day,and got a piece of paper to begin on, when I noticed a calendar behindthe desk. I took the pen and scratched off "December 17," which wasgone, and which was the beginning of my life alone in Track's End; andthe first thing every morning after that while I stayed I marked offthe day before; and so I never lost my reckoning. Though, indeed, Iwas soon to wake up in another and worse place than Track's End; butof this I will tell later. I had very foolishly forgotten to wind theclock the night before, and it had stopped, and I had no watch bywhich to set it; but I started it, and trusted to find the clock atthe depot still going, as it was an eight-day one.
MY FAMILY AND I AT A MEAL, TRACK'S END]
I soon found myself hungry, and took it for granted that it wasdinner-time. The meals seemed pretty lonesome, because I had been usedto having a great deal of fun with Tom Carr and the others at suchtimes, much of it about my poor cooking. Kaiser and Pawsy appearedwilling to do what they could to make it pleasant; and this time I puta chair at one end of the little table, and the cat jumped up in itand began to purr like a young tiger, while the dog sat on the floorat the other end and pounded the floor with his tail like any drummermight beat his drum. I also began to get them into the bad practice ofeating at the same time I did; but I had to have some company.
It must have been two hours after dinner, and I was moving my bed downinto a little room between the office and kitchen, when I first sawthat the fury of the wind was beginning to lessen. The sky began tolighten up, and from the front door I could soon catch glimpses of therailroad windmill. I saw that I must start the plan I had thought ofthe night before for keeping off the Pike gang without any delay. Myidea was that I must not let them know that I was alone, and ifpossible make them think that there were still a good many people intown. I doubted if they had known the morning they left the letterthat we were then reduced to six. I could not see how they should knowit, and I felt sure that if they had known it they would have made anattack upon the bank.
My plan, then, was to build and keep up fires in several other houses,so that if they came in sight they would see the smoke and think thatthere was still a good-sized population. I went first across thestreet to the bank building. The lower part of it was locked, but Iwent up the outside stairs and found everything in Mr. Clerkinwell'srooms as we had left it. There were also inside stairs, and I wentdown and soon had a good fire going in the lower room, and as I cameout I was pleased to see that it made a large smoke.
I next went to the north end of the street, where stood a buildingwhich had been a harness shop. It was locked, but I could see a stoveinside; so I broke a back window, reached in with a stick, and shotback the bolt of the rear door, and soon had a good smoky fire here,too. I decided that one more would do for that day, and thought thebest place for that would be in the depot. The wind had now prettywell abated, and the snow was only streaming along close to theground.
The depot was locked, but again I got in by breaking a window. Therewere the guns as I expected--five new Winchesters like Sours's.
There were also a lot of cartridges, and three large six-shooters,with belts and holsters. It was half-past three by the clock, whichwas still going. I clicked at the telegraph instrument, but it wassilent. I remembered that Tom had told me that the line had gone downbeyond Siding No. 15, which was the first one east from Track's End.Everything made me think of Tom, and I looked away along the line oftelegraph-poles where I knew the track was, down under the snow; but Icould see no train coming to take me out of the horrible place.
I soon had another fire going. After that I hid two of the rifles inthe back room and carried the others over to the hotel. I climbed tothe top of the windmill tower and took a look at Mountain's house withthe field-glass, but could see nothing. I walked around town andlooked in each of the houses with an odd sort of feeling, as if I halfowned them. Kaiser went with me, and was very glad to get out.
It was just after sundown when I got back to the door of the hotel. Upthe street in front of the harness shop I saw a jack-rabbit sitting up
and looking at me. Kaiser saw him, too, and started after him, thoughthe dog ought to have known that it was like chasing a streak oflightning. I stood with my hand on the door-knob watching the rabbitleave the dog behind, when suddenly I saw Kaiser stop as another dogcame around Frenchman's Butte. They met, there was a little tussle,which made the snow fly; then I saw Kaiser coming back on a faster runthan he had gone out on, with the other dog close behind.
"That's a brave dog I've got!" I exclaimed. I saw some other dogs comearound the Butte, but I didn't look at them much, I was so disgustedat seeing Kaiser making such a cowardly run. On he came like awhirlwind. I opened the door and stepped in. He bolted in between mylegs and half knocked me over. I slammed the door shut against theother dog's nose. The other dog, I saw, was a wolf.
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