n
door of the drawing-room, she saw the porter carrying a glass of water
to the invisible sufferer. Quite suddenly her interest became acute. Who
was the sick one? and why was he, or she, travelling without an
attendant?

With Margery Grierson, to question was to ascertain; and the Pullman
conductor, once more checking his diagrams in Section Eleven, offered
the readiest means of enlightenment. A few minutes later Margery
rejoined her father in the private compartment.

"Do you remember the nice-looking young man who sat at the table with us
in the Chouteau last night?" she began abruptly.

The gray-wolf Jasper nodded. He had an excellent memory for faces.

"What did you think of him?" The query followed the nod like a nimble
boxer's return blow.

"I thought he paid a whole lot more attention to you than he did to his
supper. Why?"

"He is on this car; sick with a fever of some kind, and out of his head.
He is going to Wahaska."

"How do you know it's the same one?"

"I made the conductor take me to see him. He talked to me in Italian and
called me '_Carlotta mia_.'"

"Humph! he didn't look like a dago."

"He isn't; it's just because he is delirious."

There was a long pause, broken finally by a curt "Well?" from the
father.

"I've been thinking," was the slow response. "Of course, there is a
chance that he has friends in Wahaska, and that some one will be at the
train to meet him. But it is only a chance."

"Why doesn't the conductor telegraph ahead and find out?"

"He doesn't know the man's name. I tried to get him to look for a card,
or to break into the suit-cases under the berth, but he says the
regulations won't let him."

"Well?" said the father again, this time with a more decided upward
inflection. Then he added: "You've made up your mind what you're going
to do: say it."

Margery's decision was announced crisply. "There is no hospital to send
him to--which is Wahaska's shame. Maybe he will be met and taken care of
by his friends: if he is, well and good; if he isn't, we'll put him in
the carriage and take him home with us."

The cast-iron smile with the indulgent attachment wrinkled frostily upon
Jasper Grierson's heavy face.

"The Good Samaritan act, eh? I've known you a long time, Madgie, but I
never can tell when you're going to break out in a brand-new spot.
Didn't lose any of your unexpectedness in Florida, did you?"

Miss Margery tossed her pretty head, and the dark eyes snapped