xclaimed, turning without releasing his
wife from his arms, "how can I ever make good for all this delay? Oh,
yes, I've had dinner. Never, for Heaven's sake, wait dinner for me!
But wait, both of you, till you hear the news!"

Dicksie kept her hands on his shoulders. "You have heard from
Whispering Smith!"

"I have."

"I knew it!"

"Wait till I get it straight. Mr. Bucks is here--I came in with him in
his car. He has news of Whispering Smith. One of our freight-traffic
men in the Puget Sound country, who has been in a hospital in
Victoria, learned by the merest accident that Gordon Smith was lying
in the same hospital with typhoid fever."

Marion rose swiftly. "Then the time has come, thank God, when I can do
something for him; and I am going to him to-night!"

"Fine!" cried McCloud. "So am I, and that is why I'm late."

"Then I am going, too," exclaimed Dicksie solemnly.

"Do you mean it?" asked her husband. "Shall we let her, Marion? Mr.
Bucks says I am to take his car and take Barnhardt, and keep the car
there till I can bring Gordon back. Mr. Bucks and his secretary will
ride to-night as far as Bear Dance with us, and in the morning they
join Mr. Glover there." McCloud looked at his watch. "If you are both
going, can you be ready by twelve o'clock for the China Mail?"

"We can be ready in an hour," declared Dicksie, throwing her arm half
around Marion's neck, "can't we, Marion?"

"I can be ready in thirty minutes."

"Then, by Heaven--" McCloud studied his watch.

"What is it, George?"

"We won't wait for the midnight train. We will take an engine, run
special to Green River, overhaul the Coast Limited, and save a whole
day."

"George, pack your suit-case--quick, dear; and you, too, Marion;
suit-cases are all we can take," cried Dicksie, pushing her husband
toward the bedroom. "I'll telephone Rooney Lee for an engine myself
right away. Dear me, it is kind of nice, to be able to order up a
train when you want one in a hurry, isn't it, Marion? Perhaps I
_shall_ come to like it if they ever make George a vice-president."

In half an hour they had joined Bucks in his car, and Bill Dancing was
piling the baggage into the vestibule. Bucks was sitting down to
coffee. Chairs had been provided at the table, and after the
greetings, Bucks, seating Marion Sinclair at his right and Barnhardt
and McCloud at his left, asked Dicksie to sit opposite and pour the
coffee. "You are a railroad man's wife now and you