ing compartment and found it unoccupied save
for Congdon, who had planted himself in a chair and was trying to light
a cigarette. Archie sank upon the leather divan and struck and held a
match for him.

Congdon thanked him with a nod and remarked that the weather was
favoring the farmers.

Archie, satisfied that the rather melancholy blue eyes had found in him
nothing familiar or suggestive of their earlier and tragic meeting,
heartily commended the weather as excellent for the crops. Congdon gave
a hitch to his shoulder occasionally and flinched when a sudden jerk of
the car threw him against the window frame. The glint of pain in his
eyes sent a wave of remorse through Archie's soul. Congdon bore his
affliction manfully. There was about him nothing even remotely
suggestive of Eliphalet Congdon's grotesque figure or excited, choppy
speech. He had suffered and perhaps his wound was not alone responsible
for his pallor or the hurt look in his eyes. As Congdon played nervously
with his watch chain, he inspected Archie with quick furtive glances.

"I'm all banged up--nerves shot to pieces," he said abruptly, turning
his gaze intently upon Archie.

"That's rough. Used to be troubled a good deal myself."

The sound of his own voice and the consciousness that the victim of his
bullet was reaching out to him for sympathy brought back his courage. He
would be very kind to Putney Congdon. Even apart from the disabled
shoulder there was a pathos in the man. Archie felt that in happier
moments he could become very fond of Putney Congdon. He looked like a
chap it would be pleasant to sit with at a table for two in a quiet club
corner.

"Chicago?" Congdon asked. It seemed to Archie that he threw into the
question a hope that they were to be fellow travelers to the end of the
journey. Here was something, a turn of the screw, that even the Governor
could not have foreseen.

The conductor came for their tickets and Archie took advantage of the
interruption to ponder the ethics and the etiquette of his predicament;
but there was no precedent in all history for such a synchronization of
two gentlemen who had recently engaged in a midnight duel. Archie was
appalled by the consciousness that he and Congdon were really hitting it
off.

The tickets surrendered, Congdon drew out his watch, said that he had
been sleeping badly and hated to go to bed. He sat erect and tried to
reach his coat pocket. His face twitched with the pain of