didn't make him anxious to remain in Chicago any longer than Monday
morning, so on that day he took the limited train for the Pacific Coast,
for he had determined not to stop off again until he reached Denver.

Days of weary travel over a level, uninteresting stretch of ground
followed the departure of the train from Chicago, and had not Archie
found some interesting persons to talk with he would have been very
weary long before reaching Denver. As it was, he managed to pass the
time very pleasantly until the train entered Colorado, and after that
he found much that was new to look at until he reached Denver. Here he
remained for half a day, just long enough to see something of the city
and a little of the neighbouring country. Then, taking a train for San
Francisco, he reached that city on Thursday afternoon, and immediately
began to make arrangements for sailing. He found, to his great
disappointment, that the army transport had sailed the previous day,
contrary to the expectations of the editors, and of the War Department
itself, until the arrival of important despatches from Manila, which
made it necessary to start the transport at once with supplies of
ammunition. Archie hardly knew what to do. He had not anticipated
anything like this, and could scarcely think of any plan for a time,
but, finally, he proved himself equal to the emergency. He went to the
naval agent and asked him when the transport would be due at Honolulu,
and then he ascertained that a passenger steamer sailing for that port
on Saturday would reach the destination three days sooner than the
transport, so that by taking the liner he would have three extra days in
Honolulu, and would be able to reach Manila on schedule time, after all.
He at once decided that this was the thing for him to do, and as soon
as he thought of taking the steamer it occurred to him that he might
possibly be able to work his way to Honolulu, instead of paying the
regular passenger fare, which he knew was high. So he went down to the
great docks, and, after interviewing the second steward, he approached
the chief steward himself, and asked if there wasn't something that
he could do aboard the ship to earn his passage. The chief steward was
thoughtful for a time, and finally said, "Well, yes, I believe there is.
We haven't any one to peel vegetables yet, and if you think you care to
do that work I guess we can fix you up all right." Archie didn't wait
to consider whether peel