im and tell him I wish--no, never mind. I
see him coming now."

She went a step or two on to meet the person she sought, halting him in
the untenanted space at the end of the coach.

"I want to speak with you, please," she began.

"Well, you'll have to hurry," he told her, "because I'm getting off with
my party in less'n five minutes from now. What was it you wanted to say
to me?"

"That young girl yonder--I became interested in her. I thought perhaps
she had been injured. Then more or less by chance I found out the true
facts. I spoke to her; she told me a little about her plight."

"Well, if you've been talking to her what's the big idea in talking to
me?"

His tone was churlish.

"This isn't mere vulgar curiosity on my part. I have a perfectly proper
motive, I think, in inquiring into her case. What is her name."

"Margaret Vinsolving."

"Spell it for me, please--the last name?"

He spelled it out, and she after him to fix it in her mind.

"Where does she live--I mean where is her home?"

"Village of Pleasantdale, this state," shortly.

"Who are her people?"

"She's got a mother and that's all, far as I know."

"What asylum are you taking her to?"

"No asylum. We're taking her to Doctor Shorter's Sanitarium back of
Peekskill two miles--Dr. Clement Shorter, specialist in nervous
disorders--he's the head."

"It is a private place then and not a state asylum?"

"You said it."

"You are connected with this Doctor Shorter's place, I assume?"

"Yep."

"In what capacity?"

"Oh, sort of an outside man--look after the grounds and help out
generally with the patients and all. And now, say, lady, if that'll
satisfy you I guess I better be stepping along. I got to see about
getting this here patient and the matron off the train; that's the
matron that's setting with her."

"Just a moment more, please."

She felt in a fob set under the cuff of her left sleeve and brought
forth a small gold badge and held it cupped in her gloved hand for him
to see. As he bent his head and made out the meaning of the badge the
gruff air dropped from him magically.

"Oh, I see!" he said. "Secret Service, eh? All right, ma'am, what more
did you want to know? Only I'd ask you speak brisk because there ain't
so much time."

"Tell me briefly what you know of that child."

"Not such a lot, excepting she's a dangerous lunatic, having been
legally adjudged so yestiddy. And her mother's paying for her keep at a
high-cl