t the conductor's dispatch had anything to do
with him; but he could not help acting as if it had. He said good-day to
the conductor as he passed him, and he went out of the station, with his
bag, as if he were going up into the town. He watched till he saw the
conductor go off in another direction, and then he came back, and got
aboard the train just as it was drawing out of the station. He knew that
he was not shadowed in any way, but his consciousness of stealth was
such that he felt as if he were followed, and that he must act so as to
baffle and mislead pursuit.

At Blackbrook, where the train stopped for dinner, he was aware that no
one knew him, and he ate hungrily; he felt strengthened and encouraged,
and he began to react against the terror that had possessed him. He
perceived that it was senseless and ridiculous; that the conductor could
not possibly have been telegraphing about him from Willoughby, and there
was as yet no suspicion abroad concerning him; he might go freely
anywhere, by any road.

But he had now let the New England Central train leave without him, and
it only remained for him to push on to Wellwater, where he hoped to
connect with the Boston train for Montreal, on the Union and Dominion
road. He remembered that this train divided at Wellwater, and certain
cars ran direct to Quebec, up through Sherbrooke and Lennoxville. He
meant to go from Montreal to Quebec, but now he questioned whether he
had better not go straight on from Wellwater; when he recalled the long,
all-night ride without a sleeper, which he had once made on that route
many summers before, he said to himself that in his shaken condition, he
must not run the risk of such a hardship. If he were to get sick from
it, or die, it would be as bad as a railroad accident. The word now made
him think of what Hilary had said; Hilary who had called him a thief. He
would show Hilary whether he was a thief or not, give him time; he would
make him eat his words, and he figured Hilary retracting and apologizing
in the presence of the whole Board; Hilary apologized handsomely, and
Northwick forgave him, while it was also passing through his mind that
he must reduce the risks of railroad accident to a minimum, by
shortening the time. They reduced the risk of ocean travel in that way,
by reducing the time, and logically the fastest ship was the safest. If
he could get to Montreal from Wellwater in four or five hours, when it
would take him twelve