,
evidently, was to stop the passing of passengers through the Santoine
car. Did it mean that the change in Santoine's condition which Dr.
Sinclair had been expecting had taken place and was for the worse?
Eaton would have liked to ask about this of Connery, whom he saw
standing outside his window and keeping watch upon him during the
switching of the cars; but he knew that the conductor would not answer
him.

He rang, instead, for the porter and asked him for a railway folder,
and when this had been brought, he opened it to the map of the railroad
and checked off the names of the towns they would pass through. Nearly
all the names set in the bold-face letters which denoted the cities and
larger towns ahead of them were, he found, toward the eastern end of
the State; the nearest--and the one, therefore, at which he thought he
would be given up--was several hours away. At long intervals the train
passed villages all but buried in the snow; the inhabitants of these,
gathered at the stations, stared in on him as they looked in on any
other passenger; and at each of these stops Connery stood outside his
window guarding against possibility of his escape. Each time, too,
that the train slowed, the porter unlocked the door of the compartment,
opened it and stood waiting until the train had regained its speed;
plainly they were taking no chances of his dropping from the window.

Early in the afternoon, as they approached the town whose name in
bold-face had made him sure that it was the one where he would be given
to the police, Eaton rang for the porter again.

"Will you get me paper and an envelope?" he asked.

The negro summoned the conductor.

"You want to write?" Connery asked.

"Yes."

"You understand that anything you write must be given to me unsealed."

"That's satisfactory to me. I don't believe that, even though it is
unsealed, you'll take it upon yourself to read it."

The conductor looked puzzled, but sent the porter for some of the
stationery the railroad furnished for passengers. The negro brought
paper, and pen and ink, and set up the little table in front of Eaton;
and when they had left him and had locked the door, Eaton wrote:

Miss Santoine:

The questions--all of them--that you and others have asked me you are
going to find answered very soon--within a very few hours, it may be,
certainly within a few days--though they are not going to be answered
by me. When they are answered, you ar