The Huge Hunter | Page 4

had been played upon them.
'Let your old machine go to blazes!' muttered Ethan. 'If it acts that way, I don't want nothin' to do with it.'
In the mean time the steamer had gone rattling over the prairie, until about a quarter of a mile distant, when it rapidly slackened, and as quickly halted.
'What's the matter wid it now?' asked Mickey; 'has it got the cramps and gi'n out?'
'The steam is used up!' replied the dwarf, as he hurried after it; 'we can soon start it again!'
All four made all haste toward the stationary figure; but the light frame and superior activity of little Johnny brought him to it considerably in advance of the others. Emptying a lot of wood from the wagon, he was busily engaged in throwing it into his stomach when the other two came up. His eyes sparkled, as he said:
'Jump up there, and I'll give you all a ride!'
The three clambered up and took their seats with great care, Mickey and Ethan especially clinging as if their life depended on it.
Johnny threw in the fuel until the black smoke poured in a stream from the hat. Before leaving it, he opened two smaller doors, at the knees, which allowed the superfluous cinders and ashes to fall out. The water in the boiler was then examined, and found all right. Johnny mounted in his place, and took charge.
'Now we are ready! hold fast!'
'Begorrah. if I goes I takes the wagon wid me,' replied Mickey, as he closed his teeth and hung on like death.
The engineer managed the monster with rare skill, letting on a full head of steam, and just as it made a move shutting it off, and letting it on almost immediately, and then shutting off and admitting it again, until it began moving at a moderate pace, which, however, rapidly increased until it was going fully thirty miles an hour.
Nothing could be more pleasant than this ride of a mile over the prairie. The plain was quite level, and despite the extraordinary speed attained, the wagon glided almost as smoothly as if running upon a railroad. Although the air was still, the velocity created a stiff breeze about the ears of the four seated on the top of the wood.
The hight of the steam man's head carried the smoke and cinders clear of those behind, while the wonderful machinery within, worked with a marvelous exactness, such as was a source of continued amazement to all except the little fellow who had himself constructed the extraordinary mechanism. The click of the joints as they obeyed their motive power was scarcely audible, and, when once started, there was no unnevenness at all in its progress.
When the party had ridden about a half-mile, Johnny described a large circle, and finally came back to the starting, checking the progress with the same skill that he had started it. He immediately sprung down, examined the fire, and several points of the man, when finding everything right, he opened his knee-caps and let cinders and ashes drop out.
'How kin yeou dew that?' inquired Ethan Hopkins, peering over his shoulder.
'What's to hinder?'
'How kin he work his legs, if they're holler that way and let the fire down 'em?'
'They ain't hollow. Don't you see they are very large, and there is plenty of room for the leg-rods, besides leaving a place for the draft and ashes?'
'Wal, I swan, if that ain't rather queer. And you made it all out of your head naow?' asked the Yankee, looking at the diminutive inventor before him.
'No, I had to use a good deal of iron,' was the reply of the youngster, with a quizzical smile.
'You mean you got up the thing yourself?' 'Yes, sir,' was the quiet but proud reply of the boy.
'Jingo and Jerusalem! but your daddy must be fond of you!' exclaimed the enthusiastic New Englander, scanning him admiringly from head to foot.
'I haven't any father.'
'Your mother then.'
'I don't know about that.'
'Say, you, can't yer tell a feller 'bout it?'
'Not now; I haven't time.'
As the steam horse was to rest for the present, he was 'put up.' The engineer opened several cavities in his legs and breast, and different parts of his body, and examined the machinery, carefully oiling the various portions, and when he had completed, he drew a large oil skin from the wagon, which, being spread out, covered both it and the steam man himself.
CHAPTER III.
A GENIUS.
HAVING PROGRESSED thus far in our story, or properly having began in the middle, it is now necessary that we should turn back to the proper starting point.
Several years since a widow woman resided in the outskirts of St. Louis, whose name was Brainerd. Her husband had been a mechanic, noted for his ingenuity, but was killed some five years before by the explosion