eworks come in. I think I'll go and light the fuses while I'm
keyed up to it."

The crowd of laborers had dispersed by the time Ford reached the Nadia,
and the president, benign from the reactionary effect of his own
early-morning eloquence, was waiting for him.

"Ah; we did reach the front safely, after all, didn't we, Mr. Ford?" was
Mr. Colbrith's mildly sarcastic greeting. And then: "Come aboard, sir;
we are waiting breakfast for you."

Ford would have declined promptly, if the invitation had been anything
less than a command. He had met none of the members of the private-car
party save Miss Alicia, and he did not want to meet them, having the
true captain-of-industry's horror of mixing business with the social
diversions. But with one example of the president's obstinacy fresh in
mind, he yielded and climbed obediently to the railed platform. Whatever
happened, he should see Alicia again, a privilege never to be too
lightly esteemed, whatever it cost.

The social ordeal was not so formidable. The private-car party was made
up of the president and his sister-in-law, the president's family
physician, Doctor Van Bruce, the doctor's wife, his sister, a maiden
lady of no uncertain age, and Alicia. These, with Penfield and Ford,
made the eight at table in the open compartment in the Nadia; and Ford,
in the seating, was lucky enough to find his place between Miss Van
Bruce, who was hard of hearing, and Miss Alicia, who was not. Luckily
again, Mr. Colbrith omitted all talk of business, drawing his end of the
table into a discussion of the effects of the dry altitudes in advanced
stages of tuberculosis.

"What a dreadful night you must have had, Mr. Ford," said Alicia, when
the tuberculotic subject was well launched at the other end of the
table. "Were you on the engine all the time?"

"Most of the time," he confessed. "But that was nothing. It wasn't my
first night in the cab, as it won't be the last, by many, I hope."

"Why? Do you like it?"

"Not particularly. But I hope to live a while longer; and while I live I
shall doubtless have to ride with the enginemen now and then."

"Was it very bad--last night?" she asked.

"I am afraid you know it was. Could you sleep at all?"

"Oh, yes; I slept very well--after that terrible shaking up we had just
before bedtime. What was happening then?"

"Nothing much. We were about to try the old experiment of passing two
trains on a single track."

"Mercy!" she exclaimed.