box while she talked. She laughed heartily at his appetite, and at
his solicitation began tasting the sweetmeats herself. She led him to
ask where the box had come from and refused to answer more than to
wonder, as she discarded the tongs and proffered him a bonbon from her
fingers, whether possibly she was not having more pleasure in disposing
of the contents than the donor of the box had intended. Changing the
subject capriciously she recalled the night in the car that he had
assisted in Louise Bonner's charade, and his absurdly effective
pirouetting in a corner behind the curtain where Louise and he thought
no one saw them.

"And, by the way," she added, "you never told me whether your
stenographer finally came that day you tried to put me at work."

Glover hung his head.

"Did she?"

"Yes."

"What is she like?"

He laughed and was about to reply when the train conductor coming
forward touched him on the shoulder and spoke. Gertrude could not hear
what he said, but Glover turned his head and straightened in his chair.
"I can't smell anything," he said, presently. With the conductor he
walked to the hind end of the car, opened the door, and the three men
went out on the platform.

"What is it?" asked Gertrude, when Glover came back.

"One of the journals in the rear truck is heating. It is curious," he
mused; "as many times as I've ridden in this car I've never known a box
to run hot till to-night--just when we don't want it to."

He drew down the slack of the bell cord, pulled it twice firmly and
listened. Two freezing pipes from the engine answered; they sounded
cold. A stop was made and Glover, followed by the trainmen, went
outside. Gertrude walking back saw them in the driving snow beneath
the window. Their lamps burned bluishly dim. From the journal box
rose a whipping column of black smoke expanding, when water was got on
the hot steel, into a blinding explosion of white vapor that the storm
snatched away in rolling clouds. There was running to and from the
engine and the delay was considerable, but they succeeded at last in
rigging a small tank above the wheel so that a stream of water should
run into the box.

The men re-entered with their faces stung by the cold, the engine
hoarsely signalled and the car started. Glover made little of the
incident, but Gertrude observed some preoccupation in his manner. He
consulted frequently his watch. Once when he was putting it back she
aske