mpse into the book of prophecy and saw that
it might easily become so. None the less, he would not go back.

"Large or small, I'll keep it to the letter. But now I want to show you
something else. Stand right here beside me and watch the outlines of
those cliffs on the right; just the outline against the sky, I mean.
Follow it steadily and tell me what you see when I give the word."

The train darted around a sharp curve and sped away up one of the few
tangents in its tortuous path. "Now!" said Brockway, as the timbers of a
culvert roared under the trucks of the observation-car.

"It's the Sphynx!" she said, with a little tremor of awe in her voice;
"solemn, and majestic, and grander than anything I ever imagined! And I
never even heard of it before. Do people know about it?"

"Not many; and those who do are hardened by familiarity. I have seen it
a great many times, but it always gets near to me, just as it did to
you."

"I shall never forget it. Please don't show me any more wonders just
now. I shall rave like the most foolish 'Cooky' of them all if you do."

"I can't," said Brockway; "I don't know any more." A shrill whistle from
the engine cut the sentence short, and Gertrude asked if they were
coming to a station.

"Yes, it's Forks Creek, famous for its pies. Everybody eats pie at the
Forks. Will you climb down from the heights of the sublime and go and
eat pie with me?"

"Anything you say," she rejoined, laughing; and a few minutes later,
John Burton the canny was scandalized to see the President's daughter
walking up and down the narrow platform with the passenger agent, eating
her half of an apple turnover which Brockway had bought and shared with
her.

XXI

ON THE HEIGHTS

John Burton was scandalized, and he said as much to his wife when the
train was once more on its way up the canyon.

"Emily, there's going to be a fracas when we get back to-night. It's my
opinion that the President sent his daughter with us to get her out of
Fred's reach."

"Then it serves him right," said Mrs. Burton, complacently. "She is not
a child; she's old enough to know her own mind."

"That may be, but it doesn't let us out. I wish you'd go back and sit
with them awhile."

"And get myself disliked? No, thank you. I may not shine as a star in
the chaperonic firmament, but I'm a human being. Think of it; put
yourself in Fred's place, if you haven't hopelessly outlived the
possibility, and see how you'd like