She was kneeling recklessly in the mud supporting Rudnik with both her
hands when the engineer and the fireman reached them.

"Is your husband hurted bad?" the engineer asked Miss Duckman.

The tears were rolling down Miss Duckman's worn cheeks, and her lips
trembled so that she could not reply. Nevertheless, at the word
"husband" her maidenly heart gave a tremendous bound, and when the
engineer and the fireman lifted Rudnik gently into the caboose her
confusion was such that without protest she permitted the conductor to
assist her carefully up the car steps.

"Sit ye down on that stool there, lady," he said. "As far as I can see
your man ain't got no bones broken."

"But----" Miss Duckman protested.

"Now, me dear lady," the conductor interrupted, "don't ye go worritin'
yerself. I've got me orders if anybody gets hit be the train to take
him to the nearest company's doctor in the direction I'm goin'. See?
And if you was Mister and Missus Vanderbilt, they couldn't treat you no
better up to the Emergency Hospital."

"But----" Miss Duckman began. Again she attempted to explain that
Rudnik was not her husband, and again the conductor forestalled her.

"And if he's able to go home to-night," he said finally, "ye'll be
given free transportation, in a parlour car d'ye mind, like ye'd be on
your honeymoon."

He patted her gently on the shoulder as he turned to a waiting
brakeman.

"Let her go, Bill," he cried, and with a jubilant toot from the engine
Miss Duckman's elopement was fairly under way.

* * * * *

When Harris Rudnik opened his eyes in the little white-curtained room
of the Emergency Hospital, Miss Duckman sat beside his bed. She smiled
encouragingly at him, but for more than five minutes he made no effort
to speak.

"Well," he said at length, "what are you kicking about? It's an elegant
place, this here Home."

Miss Duckman laid her fingers on her lips.

"You shouldn't speak nothing," she whispered, "on account you are sick,
_aber_ not serious sick."

"I know I am sick," Rudnik replied. "I was just figuring it all out. I
am getting knocked down by a train and----"

"No bones is broken," Miss Duckman hastened to assure him. "You would
be out in a few days."

"I am satisfied," he said faintly. "You got a fine place here, Missis."

Miss Duckman laid her hand on Rudnik's pillow.

"I ain't a Missis," she murmured. "My name is Miss Blooma Duckman."

"