s heart sank. She wondered if the conductor, should be really be
suspicious, could make them go back, or keep them from getting off the
train at Pine Bridge.

"No, he wasn't any relative of ours at all," she said.

"Seems to me he was shouting about you two, though," said the conductor.
"Hey, Jim!"

He called the brakeman.

"Say, Jim, didn't it look to you like that hayseed was trying to stop
these two from gettin' aboard instead of tryin' to catch the train
himself?"

"Never thought of that," said Jim, scratching his head. "Guess maybe he
was, though. Maybe we'd better send 'em back from Pine Bridge."

"That's what I'm thinking," said the conductor.

"We've paid our fare. You haven't any right to do that," said Bessie,
stoutly, although she was frightened. "And I tell you that man isn't our
father. He hasn't got anything to do with us--"

"He seemed to think so, and I believe that was why you came running that
way to catch the train, without any tickets. You say he's not your
father. Who is he? Do you know him at all?"

Bessie wished she could say that she did not; wished she could,
truthfully, deny knowing Farmer Weeks at all. But not even to avert what
looked like a serious danger would she lie.

"Yes, we know him," she said. "He's a farmer from Hedgeville. And--"

"Hedgeville, eh? What's his name?"

"Weeks--Silas Weeks."

The effect of the name was extraordinary. Conductor and brakeman doubled
up with laughter, and for a moment, while the two girls stared, neither
of them could speak at all. Then the conductor found his voice.

"Oh, ho-ho," he said, still laughing. "I wouldn't have missed that for a
week's pay! If I could only have seen his face! Don't you worry any
more! We'll not send you back to him, even if you were running from him.
Don't blame anyone for tryin' to get away from that old miser!"

"Wish he'd tried to jump aboard after we started," said Jim, the
brakeman. "I'd have kicked him off, and I wouldn't have done it gently,
either!"

"We know Silas Weeks," explained the conductor. "He's the worst kicker
and trouble maker that ever rode on this division. Every time he's
aboard my train he gives us more trouble in one trip than all the other
passengers give us in ten. He's always trying to beat his way without
payin' fare, and scarcely a time goes by that he don't write to the
office about Jim or me."

"Lot of good that does him," said Jim. "They don't pay any attention to
him."

"N