t to touch a thing that's there."

"But surely you're going with the rest of us?" said Tom.

"No, I'm not," I answered.

Tom turned and started toward the town.

"Now, don't make a fool of yourself, young man," said Burrdock. "This
here town is closed up for the winter. You won't see the train here
again before next March."

"The train won't see me, then, before next March," I said. "Jim, are
you going with the rest of them?"

"Well, I'm not the fellow to do much staying," he answered.

I turned and started for the hotel; Burrdock muttered something which
I didn't catch. I saw Andrew going toward the train, but without any
of the animals. Tom came down the street and met me. He held out his
hand and said:

"Jud, I admire you. I'd stay with you if I could, but the company has
ordered me to come, and I've got to go. But it's a crazy thing for you
to do, and you'd better come along with us, after all."

"No," I said, "I'm going to stay." (It was a foolish pride and
stubbornness that made me say it; I wanted to go already.)

"Well, good-by, Jud."

"Good-by, Tom," I said.

He walked away, then turned and said:

"Now, Jud, for the last time: Will you come?"

"No, I won't!"

In another minute the train rolled away, with Tom standing on the back
platform with his hand on the bell-rope ready to pull it if I signaled
him to stop.

But I didn't. I went on over to the Headquarters House. It was
beginning to get dark; and the snow was falling again. The door was
stuck fast, but I set my shoulder against it and pushed it open. The
snow had blown in the crack and made a drift halfway across the floor.
I put my hand on the stove. It was cold, and the fire was out.

CHAPTER V

Alone in Track's End I repent of my hasty Action: with what I do at
the Headquarters House, and the whole Situation in a Nutshell.

When I came to think of it afterward I thought it was odd, but the
first thing that popped into my mind when I saw that the fire had gone
out was that perhaps there were no matches left in the town. I ran to
the match-safe so fast that I bumped my head against the wall. The
safe was almost full, and then it struck me that there were probably
matches in half the houses in town, and that I even had some in my
pocket.

I went over and peeped out of one corner of a window-pane where the
wind had come in and kept back the frost. The snow was driving down
the street like a whirling cloud of fog. I could ha