rted briskly down the track to where the "diner"
and certain sleepers of the Southern Pacific were being shunted about.

"Come back here, you fellers!" shouted the corporal, catching sight of
the pair. "You don't know how soon this here train may start. Come back,
I say," he added emphatically, as the two, looking first into each
other's eyes, seemed to hesitate. Then, with sullen, down-cast face the
nearer turned and slowly obeyed. The other, a bright, merry youngster,
whose white teeth gleamed as he laughed his reply, still stood in his
tracks.

"We're only going to the dining-car, corporal," he shouted. "That's
going with us, so we can't be left."

"You've got no business in the dining-car, Mellen; that's not for your
sort, or mine, for that matter," was the corporal's ultimatum. And with
a grin still expanding his broad mouth, the recruit addressed as Mellen
came reluctantly sauntering in the trail of his comrade, who had
submitted in silence and yet not without a shrug of protest. It was to
the latter the corporal spoke when the two had rejoined their
associates.

"You've got sense enough to know you're not wanted at that diner,
Murray, whether Mellen has or not. That's no place for empty pockets.
What took you there?"

"Wanted a drink, and you said 'keep away from the bar-room,'" answered
Murray briefly, his gray eyes glancing about from man to man in the
group, resting for just a second on the form and features of one who
stood a little apart, a youth of twenty-one years probably. "It was
Foster's treat," he added, and that remark transferred the attention of
the party at the instant to the youngster on the outskirts.

He had been leaning with folded arms against a lamp-post, looking
somewhat wearily up the long platform to where in pairs or little groups
the passengers were strolling, men and women both, seeking relief from
the constraint and stiffness of the long ride by rail. He had an
interesting--even a handsome--face, and his figure was well knit, well
proportioned. His eyes were a dark, soft brown, with very long, curving
lashes, his nose straight, his mouth finely curved, soft and sensitive.
His throat was full, round, and at the base very white and fair, as the
unfastened and flapping shirt-collar now enabled one to see. His hands,
too, were soft and white, showing that at least one of the twenty came
not from the ranks of the toilers. His shoes were of finer make than
those of his comrades, and t