he
slushy snow, and was now resting contentedly in a big hide chair. Indeed,
notwithstanding the fact that Hetty sat close by, he was feeling
pleasantly drowsy when she turned to him.

"You have only told us that you didn't find the train-wreckers, and you
know we are just dying with curiosity," she said.

Cheyne looked up languidly, wondering whether the half-indifferent
inquisitiveness was assumed, as he remembered the anxiety he had seen in
Hetty's face when he first came in. Instead of answering directly, he
glanced round the little group sitting about the stove--for Miss Schuyler,
and Christopher Allonby and his cousin were there, as well as Hetty.

"One would scarcely fancy you were dying of anything," he said. "In fact,
it would be difficult to imagine any of you looking better. I wonder if
you know that with the way that the light falls that dusky panelling forms
a most effective background, Miss Schuyler?"

Flora Schuyler laughed. "We are not to be put off. Tell us what you
found--and you needn't have any diffidence: we are quite accustomed to
hearing the most astonishing things at Cedar."

"The trouble is that I didn't find anything. I spent several most
unpleasant hours watching a railroad-trestle in blinding snow, until the
cattle-train went by in safety. Nobody seemed to have the slightest wish
to meddle with it."

Without exactly intending it he allowed his eyes to rest on Hetty a
moment, and fancied he saw relief in her face. But it was Flora Schuyler
who turned to him.

"What did you do then?"

"I and the boys then decided it would be advisable to look for a ranch
where we could get food and shelter, and had some difficulty in finding
one. In the morning, we made our way back to the depot, and discovered
that a gentleman you know had hired a locomotive a little while after the
cattle-train started."

"Larry, of course!" ejaculated Chris Allonby. "I wanted to stake five
dollars with Clavering that he would be too smart for him again."

Cheyne looked at him inquiringly. "I don't quite understand."

"No?" and Allonby's embarrassment was unmistakable. "Well, there is no
great reason why you should. I have a habit of talking at random
occasionally. There are quite enough sensible people in this country
without me just now."

"Then," said Cheyne, "I went on to an especially forlorn place called
Boynton, and discovered with some difficulty that Mr. Grant, who hired the
locomotive, had stopped it