The Mechanical Mind of John Coggin by Elinor Teele

Author:Elinor Teele
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

20

“CLOSE THE DOOR! Air’s cold enough to skate on!”

Swaying merrily with the motion of the car, Boz bumbled shut the door, casting the inhabitants into further gloom.

A small flame burst into being. John watched a match arc through the air and land in a metal box. A welcoming surge of heat soon followed.

“Never seen a brazier light so quickly.” A tall, penitent-looking man materialized from the murk. “You young ’uns must be good luck with fire.”

“Good luck, hah!” A broad-shouldered gorilla lumbered into view. Thick hair burst from the cuffs of his shirt and the collar of his worn coat. “That’s half a bottle of Holler’s private supply.”

“I’m Tom,” the penitent man said. “And this is Cal. Feel free to warm yourselves up.”

John took Page’s hand and cautiously approached the brazier.

“Why, you’re nothing but babes!” wheezed Tom as the glow caught the undersides of their cheeks.

“Babes in arms,” Boz said, throwing his arm around John’s shoulder. “My little family.”

“What are you doing with this reprobate?” asked Tom. “You should be at home, tucked up safe in bed.”

“We would have been,” Page grumped, holding her fingers before the brazier, “if John hadn’t messed everything up by—”

“Well,” Boz interrupted, his grin showing the gums of his missing teeth, “now that we’re all snug as bugs in a Tyrolean rug, why don’t we let these lice—I mean nice”—he corrected, as Cal glowered—“men talk among themselves?”

“Oh, no.” Cal seized hold of Boz’s hair. “You don’t leave us dying with malaria and get away with it.”

“Malaria?” queried John.

“Yes, well,” Boz ahemmed. “The unfortunate upshot of my salad days. I’m afraid these gentlemen and I made our acquaintance during the excavation of a canal.” He scratched at his cheek. “I was recruiting a few good men and true for digging.”

“You said it was the next gold rush. You said there’d be beer and women and dancing bands! And what did we get?” Cal yanked Boz three times in the air for emphasis. “Jaguars and skeeters and dysentery.”

“My dear sir,” Boz replied. “If you choose to lead a rootless existence, you must be prepared to forgo fertilizer.”

A curious lump appeared in John’s throat. He looked over at Page. She was shivering uncontrollably. “A rootless existence,” he repeated to himself.

“Leave him be, Cal.” Tom took a stick and nudged a few of the coals to the side of the brazier. “He was just doing his job.”

Cal dropped Boz to the floor of the train car and stomped off back into the black.

“I hate to bring it up,” Tom said to John, “but you two look done in.” He clamped the lid on the brazier. “And we need to save on fuel.”

“O-k-k-kay,” chattered Page. Tiny rays of light were still shooting from aeration holes near the coals.

“Here now.” Tom shrugged off his coat and handed it to John. “Wrap your sister in that.”

But Page would have nothing to do with her sibling.

“Go away!” She lay down next to the brazier and curled her body into a spiral around her bear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.