Samuel the Seeker | Page 7

on a siding, waiting for the passenger train to pass," was
his next thought; and he realized regretfully that he would have been on
that train. But then, as hour after hour passed, and they did not go on, a
terrible possibility dawned upon him. He was left behind- -on a siding.
Two or three trains went by, and each time he waited anxiously. But
they did not stop. Silence came again, and he sat in the darkness and

waited and wondered and feared.
He had no means of telling the time; and doubtless an hour seemed an
age in such a plight. He would get up and pace back and forth, like a
caged animal; and then he would lie down by the door, straining his
ears for a sound--thinking that some one might pass, unnoticed through
the thick wall of the car.
By and by he became hungry and he ate the scanty meal he had in his
bundle. Then he became thirsty--and he had no water.
The realization of this made his heart thump. It was no joking matter to
be shut in, at one could not tell what lonely place, to suffer from thirst.
He sprang up and began to pound and kick upon the door in a frenzy.
But he soon tired of that and crouched on the floor again listening and
shivering, half with fear and half with cold. It was becoming chillier, so
he judged it must be night; up here in the mountains there was still frost
at night.
There came another train, a freight, he knew by the heavy pounding
and the time it took to pass. He kicked on the door and shouted, but he
soon realized that it was of no use to shout in that uproar.
The craving for water was becoming an obsession. He tried not to think
about it, but that only made him think about it the more; he would think
about not thinking about it and about not thinking about that-- and all
the time he was growing thirstier. He wondered how long one could
live without water; and as the torment grew worse he began to wonder
if he was dying. He was hungry, too, and he wondered which was
worse, of which one would die the sooner. He had heard that dying men
remembered all their past, and so he began to remember his--with
extraordinary vividness, and with bursts of strange and entirely new
emotions. He remembered particularly all the evil things that he had
ever done; including the theft of a ride, for which he was paying the
penalty. And meantime, with another part of his mind, he was plotting
and seeking. He must not die here like a rat in a hole. There must be
some way.

He tried every inch of the car--of the floor and ceiling and walls. But
there was not a loose plank nor a crack--the car was new. And that
suggested another idea--that he might suffocate before he starved. He
was beginning to feel weak and dizzy.
If only he had a knife. He could have cut a hole for air and then perhaps
enlarged it and broken out a board. He found a spike on the floor and
began tapping round the walls for a place that sounded thin; but they all
sounded thick--how thick he had no idea. He began picking splinters
away at the juncture of two planks.
Meantime hunger and thirst continued to gnaw at him. At long intervals
he would pause while a train roared by, or because he fancied he had
heard a sound. Then he would pound and call until he was hoarse, and
then go on picking at the splinters.
And so on, for an unknown number of hours, but certainly for days and
nights. And Samuel was famished and wild and weak and gasping;
when at last it dawned upon his senses that a passing train had begun to
make less noise--that the thumping was growing slower. The train was
stopping.
He leaped up and began to pound. Then he realized that he must control
himself--he must save his strength until the train had stopped. But
suppose it went on without delay? He began to pound again and to
shout like a madman.
The train stopped and there was silence; then came sounds of cars
being coupled--and meantime Samuel was kicking and beating upon
the wall. He was almost exhausted and in despair--when suddenly from
outside came a muffled call--"Hello!"
For a moment he could not speak. Then "Help! Help!" he shrieked.
"What's the matter?" asked the voice.
"I'm locked in," he called. .

"How'd you get in?"
"They locked me in by accident. I'm nearly dead."
"Who are you?"
"I was riding in the car."
"A tramp, hey?