be gracious, on this occasion. Then, too,
there was something about the warm interior of the engine-room,
contrasted with the storm outside, that lent itself to good
comradeship and anecdote.

"I suppose that you boys have never traveled a great deal, except in
the West, have you?" questioned John Berwick.

"That's right, Mr. Berwick," said Jim; "we expect to visit a few
other countries, though, before long, if we find this 'Lost Mine'
we are looking for. You know you can't travel without money."

"Not in your own yacht," replied Berwick.

"I generally walked, or," seeing a gleam of humor in Jim's eye, "or
worked my passage."

"We will stick to our yacht," remarked Jim, "seeing that we have it
on our hands."

"Quite right, too," replied the engineer.

"You must have had some rather unusual experiences in your travels,"
prompted Jo.

"Juarez says that you have been pretty much all over the world."

"That's so," replied the engineer, "but I do not know as I have
learned enough to pay me for the exertion."

"Tell the boys about that time you traveled in Russia," said Juarez.

"Which time?" questioned Berwick.

"Don't you know?" asked Juarez, slightly confused, "when you were
riding in the railroad carriage?"

"And got rather hungry?"

"Sure, that's it," said Juarez, smiling.

"That's only an anecdote," replied the engineer. "But I will tell it
if you think it will interest."

Being assured on this point, he began:

"I suppose you boys know what it is to be hungry?"

"I have got a pretty good idea of it after eating one of Tom's
dinners," remarked Jim. "You see he don't believe in having anything
left over. Thinks it's wasteful, so he just cooks dabs of things as
though we had no more appetites than a group of maiden ladies who were
taking afternoon tea."

There was a general laugh at this, the exaggeration being so manifest
that even Tom joined in, still there was some truth in Jim's jocose
remarks, for Tom did have a "close" side to him, which showed even in
cooking. It was always evident that Thomas Darlington would become the
financier among the Frontier Boys. After the laughter had died down
the engineer took up the Russian incident again.

"I venture to say that my hunger on the occasion I am about to speak
of was somewhat more real than yours, Skipper. I was traveling
first-class from St. Petersburg and heading for the German frontier.
Very foolishly I did not provide myself with a hamper o