the rumble
of the trucks under him he knew that the two engines were making good
time. He looked at his watch. It was a quarter of twelve. They had been
travelling for half an hour and he figured that the divisional point
ahead would be reached by midnight. It seemed a very short time after
that when he heard the tiny bell in his watch tinkle off the hour of
twelve. The last strokes were drowned in a shrill blast of the engine
whistle, and a moment later he caught the dull glow of lights in the
hollow of a wide curve the train was making.

Father Roland had told him the train would wait at this point fifteen
minutes, and even now he heard the clanging of handbells announcing the
fact that hot coffee, sandwiches, and ready-prepared suppers were
awaiting the half-starved passengers. The trucks grated harshly, the
whirring groan of the air-brakes ran under him like a great sigh, and
suddenly he was looking down into the face of a pop-eyed man who was
clanging a bell, with all the strength of his right arm, under his
window, and who, with this labour, was emitting a husky din of
"Supper--supper 'ot an' ready at the Royal" in his vain effort to drown
the competition of a still more raucous voice that was bellowing: "'Ot
steaks _an'_ liver'n onions at the Queen Alexandry!" As David made no
movement the man under his window stretched up his neck and yelled a
personal invitation, "W'y don't you come out and eat, old chap? You've
got fifteen minutes an' mebby 'arf an 'our; supper--supper 'ot an' ready
at the Royal!" Up and down the length of the dimly lighted platform
David heard that clangor of bells, and as if determined to capture his
stomach or die, the pop-eyed man never moved an inch from his window,
while behind him there jostled and hurried an eager and steadily growing
crowd of hungry people.

David thought again of the woman in the third coach back. Was she
getting off here, he wondered? He went to the door of the smoking
compartment and waited another half minute for Father Roland. It was
quite evident that his delay was occasioned by some difficulty in the
baggage car, a difficulty which perhaps his own presence might help to
straighten out. He hesitated between the thought of joining the
Missioner and the stronger impulse to go back into the third coach. He
was conscious of a certain feeling of embarrassment as he returned for
the third time to look at her. He was not anxious for her to see him
again unless Fathe