t wagon
delayed it momentarily at Harrison Avenue and Essex Street. Dr. Payson,
leaning out as the carriage swung into Dewey Square, saw by the big
clock on the Union Station that it was 7:13. He had lost the train.

Now, the assistant had been assistant long enough to know that
excuses--in the ordinary sense of the word--did not pass current with
Dr. Morgan. That gentleman had telegraphed for antitoxin, and said it
was important that he should have it; therefore, antitoxin must be sent
in spite of time-tables and forgetful butlers. Dr. Payson went into the
waiting room and sat down to think. After a moment's deliberation he
went over to the ticket office and asked:

"What is the first stop of the Cape Cod express?"

"Brockboro," answered the ticket seller.

"Is the train usually on time?"

"Well, I should smile. That's Charlie Mills's train, and the old man
ain't been conductor on this road twenty-two years for nothin'."

"Mills? Does he live on Shawmut Avenue?"

"Dunno. Billy, where does Charlie Mills live?"

"Somewhere at the South End. Shawmut Avenue, I think."

"Thank you," said the assistant, and, helping himself to a time-table,
he went back rejoicing to his seat in the waiting room. He had stumbled
upon an unexpected bit of luck.

There might be another story written in connection with this one; the
story of a veteran railroad man whose daughter had been very, very ill
with a dreaded disease of the lungs, and who, when other physicians
had given up hope, had been brought back to health by a celebrated
specialist of our acquaintance. But this story cannot be told just now;
suffice it to say that Conductor Charlie Mills had vowed that he would
put his neck beneath the wheels of his own express train, if by so doing
he could confer a favor on Dr. John Spencer Morgan.

The assistant saw by his time-table that the Cape Cod express reached
Brockboro at 8:05. He went over to the telegraph office and wrote two
telegrams. The first read like this:

CALVIN S. WISE, The People's Drug Store, 28 Broad Street, Brockboro,
Mass.:

Send package 1,500 units Diphtheritic Serum marked with my name to
station. Hand to Conductor Mills, Cape Cod express. Train will wait.
Matter life and death.

The second telegram was to Conductor Mills. It read:

Hold train Brockboro to await arrival C. A. Wise. Great personal favor.
Very important.

Both of these dispatches were signed with the magic name, "J. S. Morgan,