uin.

Hour after hour passed by, and there we sat. My secret cause of unrest
had to be kept locked in my breast, while my young wife, all
unsuspecting, was merry and happy, chanting little snatches of song and
telling me a hundred times she was the happiest of women. She did not
care for revolutions, nor for delays. Was she not with me! The sun
began to go down the sky, and the shadows fell. Still we sat on,
expecting every moment an order to proceed. The suspense was terrible.

At last about 6 o'clock an order came to have everything ready to pull
out for Madrid at 7, so very reluctantly we dismounted to take supper in
the station, and once more got into the car. But no order came. The
hours dragged on, and I saw fate closing her hand on me.

The night wore on, when suddenly, toward midnight, the operator rushed
out of his office and, shouting to the engineer, flew up to our
compartment, said good-bye and in a minute we were off. After that long
and terrible day it was happiness to be moving.

I had given the engineer a tip; he put on steam, and as we flew over the
road hope returned. I felt we were safe. At the rate we were going I
should have two or three hours to spare. We soon were at the Escurial.
As fate would have it we found here an order to run us on a side line
and to keep the track clear for a train going north. For two miserable
hours we waited and no train. Then I set the wires in motion again, and
just as the eastern skies grew gray we started.

Soon after midnight I telegraphed to the railway authorities at Madrid
to hold the train going south to Cadiz until my arrival, offering $100
an hour for every hour's detention.

Madrid is situated on a high sandy plain, storm-swept in Winter worse
than any plains in Northern Europe. We had a wheezy engine. Four miles
out it broke down, and then I gave up the struggle.

At 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon, nine hours too late for the Cadiz train,
we arrived at Madrid, too late to reach Cadiz by a special train. Not
too late could the train have been started off as soon as ordered, but
in Spain a special train is an unheard-of thing.

Mine from Avila was an innovation, only possible because there was so
much money behind it to all concerned at both ends of the line. No
Spaniard was ever known to be in a hurry, and no particle of matter
between his chin and his sombrero holds any lurking suspicion that
anything born of a woman could be in a hurry or have any reaso