expected "All aboard!" should be shouted at them by the
conductor. Into this crowd the freshly-arrived passengers of the
westward-bound train were a moment after ejected--each eyeing the other
with a natural and pardonable interest.

The brown-eyed, graceful young lady conducted herself in a very
business-like manner--presenting the checks for her baggage; inquiring
out the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., and handing in her letter, all in
the briefest possible time. Having secured a seat in a coach to Chloride
Hill, with the promise of the agent to call for her when the time for
departure arrived, the lady repaired to the dining-room just in time to
see her acquaintances of the train departing. Sitting down alone to a
hastily-cooked and underdone repast, she was about finishing a cup of
bitter black coffee with a little shudder of disgust, when a gentleman
seated himself opposite her at table. The glance the stranger cast in
her direction was rather a lingering one; then he ordered his breakfast
and ate it. Meanwhile the lady retired to the ladies' sitting-room.

After an hour of waiting, one, two, three, coaches rolled past the door,
and the lady began to fear she had been forgotten, when the polite agent
appeared to notify "Mrs. Hastings" that "the stage was ready." This was
Mrs. Alice Hastings, then--wife of Mr. Jack Hastings, of Deep Canon,
Chloride District. The agent thought Mr. Hastings had a very pretty
wife, and expressed his opinion in his manner, as men will.

When, just before starting, there entered three of the roughest-looking
men she had ever encountered, Mrs. Hastings began to fear that in his
zeal to obey instructions, the agent had exceeded them, and in packing
the first three coaches with first-comers, had left this one to catch up
the fag end of travel. If the first impression, gained from sight, had
made her shrink a little, what was her dismay when, at the end of ten
minutes, one of her fellow-travelers--the only American of the
three--produced a bottle of brandy, which, having offered it first to
her, he passed to the bullet-headed Irishman and very shabby Jew:
repeating the courtesy once in twenty minutes for several times.

Mrs. Hastings was a brave sort of woman, where courage was needful; and
she now began to consider the case in hand with what coolness she could
command. One hundred and thirty miles--eighteen or twenty hours of such
companionship--with no chance of change or intermission; a