ation baggage car and smoker, two freight cars and
a passenger coach, rolled ponderously alongside the platform. From the
open door of the baggage car were tossed the mail sack and two express
packages. The conductor stepped from the passenger coach. Following
him came briskly a short, thickset man with a reddish-gray beard and
grayish-red hair.

"Goin' down to the village, Mister?" inquired Mr. Lumley. "Carriage
right here."

The stranger inspected the driver of the depot wagon, inspected him
deliberately from top to toe. Then he said:

"Down to the village? Why, yes, I wouldn't wonder. Say! you're a Lumley,
ain't you?"

"Why! why--yes, I be! How'd you know that? Ain't ever seen you afore,
have I?"

"Guess not," with a quiet chuckle. "I've never seen you, either, but
I've seen your nose. I'd know a Lumley nose if I run across it in
China."

The possessor of the "Lumley nose" rubbed that organ in a bewildered
fashion. Recovering in a measure he laughed, rather half-heartedly, and
begged to know if the trunk, then being unloaded from the baggage car,
belonged to his prospective passenger. As the answer was an affirmative
nod, he secured the trunk check and departed, still rubbing his nose.

When he returned, with the trunk on the truck, he found the stranger,
with his hands in his pockets, standing before Dan'l Webster and gazing
at that animal with an expression of acute interest.

"Is this your--horse?" demanded the newcomer, pausing before the final
word of his question.

"It's so cal'lated to be," replied Gabe, with dignity.

"Hum! Does he work nights?"

"Work nights? No, course he don't!"

"Oh, all right! Then you can wake him up with a clear conscience. I
didn't know but he needed the sleep. What's his record?"

"Record?"

"Yup; his trottin' record. Anybody can see he's built for speed, narrow
in the beam and sharp fore and aft. Shall I get aboard the barouche?"

The depot master, who was on hand to help with the trunk, grinned
broadly. Mr. Lumley sulkily made answer that his passenger might get
aboard if he wanted to. Apparently he wanted to, for he sprang into the
depot wagon with a bounce that made the old vehicle rock on its springs.

"Jerushy!" he exclaimed, "she rolls some, don't she? Never mind, MY
ballast 'll keep her on an even keel. Trunk made fast astern? All
right! Say! you might furl some of this spare canvas so's I can take
an observation as we go along. Don't go so fast that the