train
started. I saw the lantern of the shack on the first blind. He was
riding her out. And I saw the dubs stand forlornly by the track as the
blind went by. They made no attempt to get on. They were beaten by
their own inefficiency at the very start. After them, in the line-up,
came the tramps that knew a little something about the game. They let
the first blind, occupied by the shack, go by, and jumped on the
second and third blinds. Of course, the shack jumped off the first and
on to the second as it went by, and scrambled around there, throwing
off the men who had boarded it. But the point is that I was so far
ahead that when the first blind came opposite me, the shack had
already left it and was tangled up with the tramps on the second
blind. A half dozen of the more skilful tramps, who had run far enough
ahead, made the first blind, too.

At the next stop, as we ran forward along the track, I counted but
fifteen of us. Five had been ditched. The weeding-out process had
begun nobly, and it continued station by station. Now we were
fourteen, now twelve, now eleven, now nine, now eight. It reminded me
of the ten little niggers of the nursery rhyme. I was resolved that I
should be the last little nigger of all. And why not? Was I not
blessed with strength, agility, and youth? (I was eighteen, and in
perfect condition.) And didn't I have my "nerve" with me? And
furthermore, was I not a tramp-royal? Were not these other tramps mere
dubs and "gay-cats" and amateurs alongside of me? If I weren't the
last little nigger, I might as well quit the game and get a job on an
alfalfa farm somewhere.

By the time our number had been reduced to four, the whole train-crew
had become interested. From then on it was a contest of skill and
wits, with the odds in favor of the crew. One by one the three other
survivors turned up missing, until I alone remained. My, but I was
proud of myself! No Croesus was ever prouder of his first million. I
was holding her down in spite of two brakemen, a conductor, a fireman,
and an engineer.

And here are a few samples of the way I held her down. Out ahead, in
the darkness,--so far ahead that the shack riding out the blind must
perforce get off before it reaches me,--I get on. Very well. I am
good for another station. When that station is reached, I dart ahead
again to repeat the manoeuvre. The train pulls out. I watch her
coming. There is no light of a lantern on the blind. Has the crew
aband