I jumped down and stood beside the track, watching it grow until I could see the yellow of the diesel’s paintwork against the drab white background of melting snow. It passed the points into the double track and as it came thundering down on me, I could feel the weight of it beating at the ground under my feet.
The track in front of me was leaping under the vibration, and then it was on me with a rush of air, pressing me back against the dining coach. There was a smell of hot oil, a glimpse of huge driving wheels, and behind it clattered a long line of steel transporters, their specially-constructed bogies beating a rapid tattoo. Wagons full of sleepers followed and, behind them, two coaches, and finally the caboose.
I clambered back into the diner and sat down again at the table. ‘Was that the supply train?’ I asked the man next to me.
He nodded, his mouth full, and I finished my steak, wondering whether Laroche had been in one of the coaches.
The men were beginning to drift back to work and I went with them. Their transport, parked at the tail-end of the bunkhouse train, consisted of small rail cars, hitched together in trains of three. With their upright coachwork, they looked like the rolling stock of an old-fashioned mountain railway. ‘Are you going up towards Head of Steel?’ I asked the foreman. But he shook his head. He had a small, open speeder with a Perspex windshield and I stood and watched him as he put it in gear, eased forward the belt drive clutch and went trundling down the track behind his gang. He paused just clear of the points to switch them back to the through-track position and then ran on down the line, the fussy putter of the engine dwindling rapidly.
The brief interlude of sun was over. The world was cold and grey and I went back to the warmth of the diner, wishing now that I’d come up on the supply train. The tables had been cleared, the benches pushed back against the sides of the coach. It was nearly one-thirty. Farrow would be headed for home now. But it was difficult to believe in England up here in this wild country. I sat down by one of the windows, staring out across the empty main track to the solid wall of jackpine beyond. I’d start walking. Ten miles … say, four hours. I’d be at Head of Steel about dusk. Nobody would see me then and I could slip past the supply train and head north.
Time passed slowly and nobody came up the line. And then, when it was almost three and I was getting ready to leave, voices sounded below the window, and a moment later the door at the end slid back with a crash, and two men entered, shouting for Georges and demanding coffee and doughnuts. ‘Mr Lands been through here yet?’ the elder of the two asked.
‘Sorry, Mr Steel, I don’t see him for two weeks or more,’ Georges answered. Steel came on into the diner, pulling off his fur-lined gloves and throwing them on to the table. He was dressed entirely in olive green with a peaked ski cap, and his thin, lined face looked pinched with cold. ‘You here about this esker that’s been located?’ he asked, looking straight at me.
‘No,’ I said. I didn’t know what an esker was and all I wanted was to get out of there before Lands arrived. I picked up my gloves and fur cap.
But his companion stood between me and the door, a big, broad-shouldered youngster in a fur cap and scarlet-lined hunting parka. ‘What’s your job?’ he demanded. He had an Irish accent.
‘Engineer,’ I answered without thinking. And then I checked, for I knew I’d made a mistake. These men were engineers themselves.
‘Then you can probably tell us something about it,’ Steel said. ‘All we’ve heard is that there’s talk of pushing a spur line in and starting a new ballast pit.’
‘I’m new here,’ I said quickly. ‘I don’t know anything about it.’
He nodded, his eyes fixed on my face. ‘Thought I hadn’t seen you before. Straight up from Base, are you?’
‘Yes.’ I didn’t know quite what to do. I felt that if I left now he’d be suspicious. And then Georges came in with the coffee and a heaped plate of doughnuts. ‘You like coffee, too?’ he asked me, and I saw that there were three mugs on the tray.
‘You staying here or going on up the line?’ Steel asked me, his mouth already full of doughnut.
‘Going on,’ I said, gulping the coffee though it was scalding hot. I had to get out of here somehow before Lands arrived.
‘We can probably give you a lift as far as Head of Steel. Where are you bound for?’
I hesitated. But it didn’t seem to matter. ‘Two-six-three,’ I said.
‘Crazy Darcy, eh?’ His companion gave a loud guffaw. ‘Jesus Christ! So they haven’t rumbled him yet, the old devil.’
‘What Paddy means,’ Steel said, dunking his doughnut, ‘is that Ray is one of the old-timers on this railroad.’
‘What I mean is that he’s an old rogue and you’ll do all the work for him whilst he takes the credit — if you’re a hardworking, sober, God-fearing engineer, which is what we all are seeing this is the Wilderness and no Garden of Eden running with the milk of human kindness that comes from my native land.’
‘There’s no liquor allowed up here,’ Steel said. That’s what he means. It’s a subject of conversation that gets kind of boring after you’ve been up here a while.’ He was looking at me curiously. ‘Your name wouldn’t be Ferguson, would it?’
I nodded, my body suddenly tense, wondering what was coming.
But all he said was, ‘Somebody was inquiring for you just as we left Head of Steel.’
‘Laroche?’ The question seemed dragged out of me.
‘That’s the guy, yes. The pilot of that plane that crashed. You know him?’
I nodded, thinking that now he was between me and Two-six-three.
‘Bad business, that crash,’ Steel said. ‘Did he ever talk to you about it?’
But all I could think of was the fact that Laroche had been on the supply train. ‘What did he want?’ I asked. ‘Did he tell you what he wanted?’
‘No. Just asked if we’d seen you. But it seemed urgent.’ And then he went back to the subject of the crash. ‘I guess it must’ve been a hell of a shock to him, both his passengers dead and then struggling out alone like that. Makes you realize what this country’s like soon as you get away from the grade.’ And he added, ‘I heard he was engaged to Briffe’s daughter. Is that true?’
The sound of a speeder came from the track outside and the Irishman jumped to his feet and went to the window. ‘Here’s Bill now.’
Laroche at Head of Steel and now Lands. I felt suddenly trapped. The speeder had stopped outside the diner, the engine ticking over with a gentle putter that was muffled by the thick glass of the windows. Boots sounded on the iron grating at the end of the coach and then the door slammed back. I only just had time to turn away towards the window before Bill Lands was there.
‘You got my message then, A1.’ His voice was right behind me as he came down the coach. ‘And you brought Paddy with you. That’s swell.’
He was down by the stove now and I glanced at him quickly. He looked even bigger in his parka and the fur cap made his face look tougher, a part of the North. ‘You want some cawfee, Bill?’ Steel was standing to make room for him.
‘Sure,’ Lands said, his hands held out to the hot casing of the stove. ‘And some doughnuts. You know why I asked you and Paddy to meet me here?’
‘There was some talk about an esker — ‘
‘That’s it. Williams found it.’ His voice was muffled by the doughnut he was wolfing down. ‘Thought it might solve our problem. That ballast coming up from One-three-four is starting to get froze. But if we could open up a ballast pit here, right behind Head of Steel…’ He checked suddenly and said, ‘Hell! My speeder’s still on the track. Hey, you!’
I knew he’d turned and was staring at my back. I couldn’t ignore him and at the same time I didn’t dare turn to face him. ‘Can you drive a speeder?’ he demanded.