The Road. Аудирование на 50000+ английских слов с текстовым сопровождением

I cannot hope to equal the speed of the train, but I can reduce the difference of our speed to the minimum, and, hence, reduce the shock of impact, when I leap on board.

In the fleeting instant of darkness I do not see the iron hand-rail of the last platform; nor is there time for me to locate it. I reach for where I think it ought to be, and at the same instant my feet leave the ground. It is all in the toss. The next moment I may be rolling in the gravel with broken ribs, or arms, or head. But my fingers grip the hand-hold, there is a jerk on my arms that slightly pivots my body, and my feet land on the steps with sharp violence.

I sit down, feeling very proud of myself. In all my hoboing it is the best bit of train-jumping I have done. I know that late at night one is always good for several stations on the last platform, but I do not care to trust myself at the rear of the train. At the first stop I run forward on the off-side of the train, pass the Pullmans, and duck under and take a rod under a day-coach.

At the next stop I run forward again and take another rod.

I am now comparatively safe. The shacks think I am ditched. But the long day and the strenuous night are beginning to tell on me. Also, it is not so windy nor cold underneath, and I begin to doze. This will never do. Sleep on the rods spells death, so I crawl out at a station and go forward to the second blind.

Here I can lie down and sleep; and here I do sleep – how long I do not know – for I am awakened by a lantern thrust into my face.

The two shacks are staring at me. I scramble up on the defensive, wondering as to which one is going to make the first «pass» at me. But slugging is far from their minds.

«I thought you was ditched,» says the shack who had held me by the collar.

«If you hadn’t let go of me when you did, you’d have been ditched along with me,» I answer.

«How’s that?» he asks.

«I’d have gone into a clinch with you, that’s all,» is my reply.

They hold a consultation, and their verdict is summed up in:—

«Well, I guess you can ride, Bo. There’s no use trying to keep you off.»

And they go away and leave me in peace to the end of their division.

I have given the foregoing as a sample of what «holding her down» means. Of course, I have selected a fortunate night out of my experiences, and said nothing of the nights – and many of them – when I was tripped up by accident and ditched.