this purpose.

He determined to keep this purpose steadily in mind, not to lose thought
of it for an instant; it was his only refuge. Then a new anguish seized
him; a doubt that swiftly became certainty; and he knew that he had
signed that dispatch Northwick and not Warwick; he saw just how his
signature looked on the yellow manilla paper of the telegraph blank. Now
he saw what a fool he had been to think of sending any dispatch. He
cursed himself under his breath, and in the same breath he humbly prayed
to God for some way of escape. His terror made it certain to him that he
would be arrested as soon as he reached Wellwater. That would be the
next stop, the conductor told him, when he halted him with the question
on his way through the cars. The conductor said they were behind time,
and Northwick knew by the frantic pull of the train that they were
running to make up the loss. It would simply be death to jump from the
car; and he must not die, he must run the risk. In his prayer he
bargained with God that if He would let him escape, he would give every
thought, every breath to making up the loss of his creditors; he half
promised to return the money he was carrying away, and trust to his own
powers, his business talent in a new field, to retrieve himself. He
resolved to hide himself as soon as he reached Wellwater; it would be
dark, and he hoped that by this understanding with Providence he could
elude the officer in getting out of the car. But if there were two, one
at each end of the car?

There was none, and Northwick walked away from the station with the
other passengers, who were going to the hotel near the station for
supper. In the dim light of the failing day and the village lamps, he
saw with a kind of surprise, the deep snow, and felt the strong, still
cold of the winterland he had been journeying into. The white drifts
were everywhere; the vague level of the frozen lake stretched away from
the hotel like a sea of snow; on its edge lay the excursion steamer in
which Northwick had one summer made the tour of the lake with his
family, long ago.

He was only a few miles from the Canadian frontier; with a rebound from
his anxiety, he now exulted in the safety he had already experienced. He
remained tranquilly eating after the departure of the Montreal train was
cried; and when he was left almost alone, the head-waiter came to him
and said, "Your train's just going, sir."

"Thank you," he answered, "I'm going