."

"I know that wheel is on fire," I said, not to be turned from the
direct and certain line of assertion into the winding ways of argument.

"No matter," replied Halicarnassus, conceding everything, "we are
insured."

Upon the strength of which consolatory information I went in. By and by
a man entered and took a seat in front of us. "The box is all afire,"
chuckled he to his neighbor, as if it were a fine joke. By and by
several people who had been looking out of the windows drew in their
heads, went into the next car.

"What do you suppose they did that for?" I asked Halicarnassus.

"More aristocratical. Belong to old families. This is a new car,
don't you see? We are parvenus."

"Nothing of the sort," I rejoined. "This car is on fire, and they have
gone into the next one so as not to be burned up."

"They are not going to write books, and can afford to run away from
adventures."

"But suppose I am burned up in my adventure?"

"Obviously, then, your book will end in smoke."

I ceased to talk, for I was provoked at his indifference. I leave
every impartial mind to judge for itself whether the circumstances were
such as to warrant composure. To be sure, somebody said the car was to
be left at Jeru; but Jeru was eight miles away, and any quantity of
mischief might be done before we reached it,--if indeed we were not
prevented from reaching it altogether. It was a mere question of
dynamics. Would dry wood be able to hold its own against a raging fire
for half an hour? Of course the conductor thought it would; but even
conductors are not infallible; and you may imagine how comfortable it
was to sit and know that a fire was in full blast beneath you, and to
look down every few minutes expecting to see the flames forking up
under your feet. I confess I was not without something like a hope
that one tongue of the devouring element would flare up far enough to
give Halicarnassus a start; but it did not. No casualty occurred. We
reached Jeru in safety; but that does not prove that there was no
danger, or that indifference was anything but the most foolish
hardihood. If our burning car had been in mid-ocean, serenity would
have been sublimity, but to stay in the midst of peril when two steps
would take one out of it is idiocy. And that there was peril is
conclusively shown by the fact that the very next day the Eastern
Railroad Depot took fire and was burned to the ground. I have in my
own mind no d