It was safely retrospective now, and Ford could smile at her belated
shock.

"Were the others alarmed?" he asked.

"Mrs. Van Bruce and Aunt Hetty were. But Uncle Sidney fairly coruscated.
He said that an engineer who would make such a stop as that ought to be
discharged."

"Hector was willing to quit," laughed Ford. "He grumbled for a full hour
afterward about the wrenching he had given the 1012. You see he might
have taken about six feet more for the stop, if he'd only known it."

Miss Alicia said "Mercy!" again. "Were we as near as that to a
collision?" she asked, in a hushed whisper.

"We were, indeed. The freight was supposed to be on a siding--broken
down. The crew tinkered things up some way, and the train proceeded.
Luckily, the freight engineer saw our electric headlight farther than we
could see his oil lamp, and the track happened to be measurably
straight."

Miss Adair was silent for a little time, waiting for the lapsed
tuberculotic discussion to revive. When it was once more in full swing,
she asked quickly:

"What is the programme for to-day? Must we all stay in the car as you
intimated yesterday?"

Ford glanced across the table to make sure that Penfield was not
eavesdropping.

"It will not be necessary. Your coming--or the president's--has reformed
things wonderfully. Frisbie says--but never mind what he says: the
miracle has been wrought."

He said it with such an evident air of dejection that she wondered. And
with Miss Alicia Adair the step from wonderment to investigation was
always short.

"You say it as if you were sorry," she said. "Are you?"

"Oh, no; I'm glad--for your sake. But I wonder if you could understand
if I say that it will make it a thousand times harder for me?"

"I can understand when I'm told," she retorted.

The table-for-eight was no place for confidences; and Ford knew
Penfield's weakness for soaking up information. Yet he took the risk.

"You remember what I hinted at, yesterday," he said in low tones; "about
the rough-house we have been having in the camps. It hasn't stopped
short of murder. I objected to the MacMorroghs before the contract was
given to them; and since, I have fought the lawlessness as I could. Now
your uncle comes over here and doesn't find any lawlessness. What is the
inference?"

"That you have been--" she took him up quickly, and there was swift
indignation in the blue eyes.

"--lying to gain a personal end," he finished for her.