As he started with her out into the drizzling rain,
he carried her little girl, and, stopping down the platform at a
sheltered lunch-counter, he bought a bag of doughnuts big enough to
sink a ship. He offered no money to the man at the counter, but his
credit seemed unquestioned. In the train the seats appeared all to be
taken, but the drowsy man again showed his authority by rolling a
tipsy fellow out of a seat and piling him up in a corner near the
stove--which fortunately had no fire in it.

During all this time he had not said a word. But at the last, having
placed the woman and the children in two seats and made them
comfortable, he asked the mother one question--her husband's name. She
told him, and, without any comment or good-bys, he left the car and
started through the rain uptown.

After the train pulled out, the wind shifted and the rain changed
into a snow which, driven from the mountains, thickened on the wet
window in front of the operator's table. A message came for the
night yardmaster, and the operator, seeing the head-light of the
switch-engine which was working close by, put on his cap and stepped
out to deliver the message. As he opened the waiting-room door, a man
confronted him--the bearded man who had taken the woman and children
to the train. Bucks saw under the visor of a cloth cap, a straight
white nose, a dark eye piercingly keen, and a rather long, glossy,
black beard. It was the passenger conductor, David Hawk. Without
speaking, Hawk held out his hand with a five-dollar bank note in it.

"What is this?" asked Bucks.

"The money you gave the woman."

Bucks, taking the bill, regarded his visitor with surprise. "Where did
you get this?"

"What's that to you?"

"But----"

"Don't ask questions," returned Hawk brusquely. "You've got your
money, haven't you?"

"Yes, but----"

"That's enough." And with Bucks staring at him, Hawk, without a word
or a smile, walked out of the station.

But Bill Dancing had seen the incident and was ready to answer Bucks's
question as he turned with the money in his hand. "That is Dave Hawk,"
explained Dancing. "Dave hates a sneak. The way he got the money from
the woman's husband was probably by telling him if he didn't pay for
his wife's ticket and add enough to feed her and her babies to the
river he would blow his head off. Dave doesn't explain things
especially."

Bucks put the money in his pocket and started on with his message. The
yards cover