e to identify him,
and I saw him only for the second or two intervening, and with his back
toward us. But the back looked like Hallock's; I'm afraid it was
Hallock's."

"But why should he weaken at the last moment and try to stop the train?"
queried Dawson.

"You forget that it was the special, and not the passenger, that was to
be wrecked."

"Sure," said the draftsman.

"I've told you this, Fred, because, if the man we saw were Hallock,
he'll probably turn up while you are at work; Hallock, with Judson at
his heels. You'll know what to do in that event?"

"I guess so: keep a sharp eye on Hallock, and make Judson hold his
tongue. I'll do both."

"That's all," said the superintendent. "Now I'll have Bradford pull us
up on the spur to give you room to get your baby crane ahead; then you
can pull down and let us out."

The shifting took some few minutes, and more than a little skill. While
it was in progress Lidgerwood was in the service-car, trying to
persuade the young women to go to his state-room for a little rest and
sleep on the return run. In the midst of the argument, the door opened
and Dawson came in. From the instant of his entrance it was plain that
he had expected to find the superintendent alone; that he was visibly
and painfully embarrassed.

Lidgerwood excused himself and went quickly to the embarrassed one, who
was still anchoring himself to the door-knob. "What is it, Fred?" he
asked.

"Judson: he has just turned up, walking from Little Butte, he says, with
a pretty badly bruised ankle. He is loaded to the muzzle with news of
some sort, and he wants to know if you'll take him with you to An--" The
draftsman, facing the group under the Pintsch globe at the other end of
the open compartment, stopped suddenly and his big jaw grew rigid. Then
he said, in an awed whisper, "God! let me get out of here!"

"Tell Judson to come aboard," said Lidgerwood; and the draftsman was
twisting at the door-knob when Miriam Holcombe came swiftly down the
compartment.

"Wait, Fred," she said gently. "I have come all the way out here to ask
my question, and you mustn't try to stop me: are you going to keep on
letting it make us both desolate--for always?" She seemed not to see or
to care that Lidgerwood made a listening third.

Dawson's face had grown suddenly haggard, and he, too, ignored the
superintendent.

"How can you say that to me, Miriam?" he returned almost gruffly. "Day
and night I am paying, paying