llers by land or sea ever received their money's worth in
food it was Steve and Tom. They took the menu card and briskly demanded
everything in order, and when, having finished their dessert, they made
the discovery that a criminally careless waiter had deprived them of
pineapple sherbert, they immediately and indignantly saw to it that the
omission was corrected. Afterwards, groaning with happiness and
repletion, they dragged themselves back to their own car and subsided on
the seat in beatific silence.

An hour later they came out of their stupor to stare eagerly, excitedly
out at the indications of the approaching metropolis. Meadows strung
with enormous and glaring signboards gave place to towns and presently
there came a pause at a station where other trains whisked in and out
with amazing frequency. Then on again, and they were suddenly dipping
into a tunnel, conscious of an unpleasant pressure against their
eardrums. Tom's expression of bewildered alarm moved a kind-hearted
neighbour across the car aisle to lean over and explain smilingly that
the train was now running under the river, a piece of information but
little calculated to remove Tom's fears had he given the slightest
credence to it, which he didn't.

"I guess," he muttered resentfully close to Steve's ear, "he thinks
we're a couple of 'greenies' for fair! Going under a river!"

And then, almost before Tom's indignation had given way again to alarm,
the tunnel was left behind and they were in New York at last, a
dimly-lighted, subterranean New York filled with hurrying crowds,
bustle, noise, confusion and importunate porters. Even though the two
boys emerged to the platform in a somewhat dazed condition, they had no
intention of wasting perfectly good pocket money having their bags
carried for them, and so started out to find the office of the baggage
transfer company quite bravely. For a minute they had only to follow the
hurrying throng of fellow-passengers, but soon this throng divided and
went separate ways and Steve and Tom, resting their arms by depositing
their hand luggage on the lower step of an apparently interminable
flight of broad stairs, looked about for someone to question. But
everyone seemed in a terrible hurry, and when, at last, Steve ventured
to put a query to a benevolent-looking elderly gentleman who clutched a
tightly-rolled umbrella in one hand and an afternoon paper in the other,
he almost had his head bitten off! In the end,