s with the friendly one.
"Mr. Somers, you're my good angel. You've undertaken a thankless task,
though."

The womanish face under the band of the skull-cap broke into a smile
which was not altogether angelic. "I shall get my pay as I go along; our
friend with the bad case of ticket dementia will be carrying the entire
responsibility for your absence before I get through."

"Good! pile it on thick," said Brockway, chuckling. "Make 'em understand
that I'd give all my old shoes to go--that I'm so angry with Jordan for
spoiling my day's pleasure that I can't see straight."

"I'll do it," the little man agreed. "Take a cigar to smoke after
breakfast"--and the gray duster and velvet skull-cap disappeared
forthwith around the angle in the vestibule.

Not until he was ready to seek Burton did the passenger agent recollect
that the Naught-fifty was between the Tadmor and the Ariadne, and that
it would be the part of prudence to go around rather than through the
President's car. When he did remember it he stepped out into the
vestibule of the Tadmor to get a breath of fresh air while he waited for
the train to come to a station. Mrs. Dunham was on the Naught-fifty's
rear platform, and she nodded, smiled, and beckoned him to come across.

"I'm glad to know that somebody else besides a curious old woman cares
enough for this grand scenery to get up early in the morning," she said,
pleasantly.

"You mustn't make me ashamed," Brockway rejoined. "I'm afraid I should
have been sound asleep this minute if I hadn't been routed out by one of
my people."

Mrs. Dunham smiled. "Gertrude was telling me about some of your
troubles. Do they get you up early in the morning to ask you foolish
questions?"

"They do, indeed"--and Brockway, glad enough to find a sympathetic
listener, told the story of the pertinacious human gadfly masquerading
under the name of Jordan.

"Dear, dear! How unreasonable! Will you have to give up the Silver Plume
trip and stay in Denver with him?"

"I suppose so. I'm going forward presently to try to get Mr. Burton and
his wife to take my place with the party for the day."

"Not Mr. John Burton, of the Colorado & Utah?"

"Yes; do you know him?"

"Only through Gertrude; she met them when she was out here last year,
and she likes Mrs. Burton very much indeed."

"I'm glad of that," said Brockway, with great _naivete_; "they are very
good friends of mine."

In the pause that succeeded he was reminded that