e are
we?"

"Goodness knows, my lady. We're hours away from Winnipeg--that's all I
know--and we're likely to stay here, by what Yerkes says."

"Has there been an accident?"

Simpson replied--sombrely--that something had happened, she didn't know
what--that Yerkes put it down to "the sink-hole," which according to him
was "always doing it"--that there were two trains in front of them at a
standstill, and trains coming up every minute behind them.

"My dear Simpson!--that must be an exaggeration. There aren't trains
every minute on the C.P.R. Is Mr. Philip awake?"

"Not yet, my lady."

"And what on earth is a sink-hole?" asked Elizabeth.

CHAPTER II

Elizabeth had ample time during the ensuing sixteen hours for inquiry as
to the nature of sink-holes.

When she emerged, dressed, into the saloon--she found Yerkes looking out
of the window in a brown study. He was armed with a dusting brush and a
white apron, but it did not seem to her that he had been making much
use of them.

"Whatever is the matter, Yerkes? What is a sink-hole?"

Yerkes looked round.

"A sink-hole, my lady?" he said slowly--"A sink-hole, well, it's as you
may say--a muskeg."

"A _what?_"

"A place where you can't find no bottom, my lady. This one's a vixen,
she is! What she's cost the C.P.R.!"--he threw up his hands. "And
there's no contenting her--the more you give her the more she wants.
They give her ten trainloads of stuff a couple of months ago. No good! A
bit of moist weather and there she is at it again. Let an engine and
two carriages through last night--ten o'clock!"

"Gracious! Was anybody hurt? What--a kind of bog?--a quicksand?"

"Well," said Yerkes, resuming his dusting, and speaking with polite
obstinacy, "muskegs is what they call 'em in these parts. They'll have
to divert the line. I tell 'em so, scores of times. She was at this game
last year. Held me up twenty-one hours last fall."

When Yerkes was travelling he spoke in a representative capacity. He
_was_ the line.

"How many trains ahead of us are there? Yerkes?"

"Two as I know on--may be more."

"And behind?"

"Three or four, my lady."

"And how long are we likely to be kept?"

"Can't say. They've been at her ten hours. She don't generally let
anyone over her under a good twenty--or twenty-four."

"Yerkes!--what will Mr. Gaddesden say? And it's so damp and horrid."

Elizabeth looked at the outside prospect in dismay. The rain was
drizzling down.