rest while he asked one of his own.

"How do you come to be mixed up in it, Jack? A week ago some one
told me you were going to South America to build a railroad in the
Andes. What switched you?"

Winton shook his head. "Fate, I guess; that and a wire from President
Callowell of the Utah offering me this. Chief of Construction Evarts,
in charge of the work in Quartz Creek Canyon, said what you said a
few minutes ago--that he had not hired out for a soldier. He resigned,
and I'm taking his berth."

Adams rose and buttoned his coat.

"By all of which it seems that we two are in for a good bit more
than the ossifying exile," he remarked. And then: "I am going back
into the Rosemary to pay my respects to Miss Virginia Carteret. Won't
you come along?"

"No," said Winton, more shortly than the invitation warranted; and
the other went his way alone.

II. IN WHICH AN ENGINE IS SWITCHED

"'Scuse me, sah; private cyah, sah."

It was the porter's challenge in the vestibule of the Rosemary. Adams
found a card.

"Take that to Miss Carteret--Miss Virginia Carteret," he directed, and
waited till the man came back with his welcome.

The extension table in the open rear third of the private car was
closed to its smallest dimensions, and the movable furnishings were
disposed about the compartment to make it a comfortable lounging room.

Mrs. Carteret was propped among the cushions of a divan with a book.
Her daughter occupied the undivided half of a tete-a-tete chair with
a blond athlete in a clerical coat and a reversed collar. Miss
Virginia was sitting alone at a window, but she rose and came to greet
the visitor.

"How good of you to take pity on us!" she said, giving him her hand.
Then she put him at one with the others: "Aunt Martha you have met;
also Cousin Bessie. Let me present you to Mr. Calvert: Cousin Billy,
this is Mr. Adams, who is responsible in a way for many of my
Boston-learned gaucheries."

Aunt Martha closed the book on her finger. "My dear Virginia!" she
protested in mild deprecation; and Adams laughed and shook hands with
the Reverend William Calvert and made Virginia's peace all in the same
breath.

"Don't apologize for Miss Virginia, Mrs. Carteret. We were very good
friends in Boston, chiefly, I think, because I never objected when she
wanted to--er--to take a rise out of me." Then to Virginia: "I hope I
don't intrude?"

"Not in the least. Didn't I just say you were good to come? Uncle