in the demand that the train be held. His despatch from
O---- said that you, Mr. Lorry, insisted on having it held for twenty
minutes. The conductor insulted you, sir, by saying that you had
more--ah, what is it?--gall than any idiot he had ever seen. When he
said that, although I did not fully understand that it was a reflection
on you, so ignorant am I of your language, I took occasion to tell him
that you were a gentleman and a friend of mine. He asked me your name,
but, as I did not know it, I could only tell him that he would learn it
soon enough. Then he said something which has puzzled me ever since. He
told me to close my face. What did he mean by that, Mr. Lorry?"

"Well, Mr. Guggenslocker, that means, in refined American, 'stop
talking,'" said Lorry, controlling a desire to shout.

"Ach, that accounts for his surprise when I talked louder and faster
than ever. I did not know what he meant. He said positively he would not
wait, but just then a second message came from the other station. I did
not know what it was then, but a gentleman told me that it instructed
him to hold the train if he wanted to hold his job. Job is situation,
is it not? Well, when he read that message he said he would wait just
twenty minutes. I asked him to tell me how you were coming to us, but he
refused to answer. Your aunt and I went at once to the telegraph man
and implored him to tell us the truth, and he said you were coming in a
carriage over a very dangerous road. Imagine our feelings when he said
some people had been killed yesterday on that very road.

"He said you would have to drive like the--the very devil if you got
here in twenty minutes."

"We did, Uncle Caspar," interrupted Miss Guggenslocker, naively. "Our
driver followed Mr. Lorry's instructions."

Mr. Grenfall Lorry blushed and laughed awkwardly. He had been admiring
her eager face and expressive eyes during Uncle Caspar's recital. How
sweet her voice when it pronounced his name, how charming the foreign
flavor to the words.

"He would not have understood if I had said other things," he explained,
hastily.

"When your aunt and I returned to the train we saw the conductor holding
his watch. He said to me: 'In just three minutes we pull out. If they
are not here by that time they can get on the best they know how. I've
done all I can: I did not say a word, but went to my section and had
Hedrick get out my pistols. If the train left before you arrived it
would be