"I think it is perfectly splendid, Rod, and if I were only a boy I would
do just as you have done! Wouldn't you, papa?"

"I am not quite sure that I would, my dear," answered her father, with a
smile. "While I heartily approve of a boy who wishes to become a railroad
man, beginning at the very bottom of the ladder and working his way up, I
cannot approve of his leaving his home with the slightest suspicion of a
stain resting on his honor if he can possibly help it. Don't you think,
Rodman," he added kindly, turning to the lad, "that the more manly course
would have been to have stayed in Euston until you had solved the problem
of who really did disable your cousin's bicycle?"

"I don't know but what it would," replied the young man, thoughtfully;
"but it would have been an awfully hard thing to do."

"Yes, I know it would. It would have been much harder than going hungry or
fighting tramps or capturing express robbers; still it seems to me that it
would have been more honorable."

"But Uncle turned me out of the house."

"Did he order you to leave that very night, or did he ask you to make
arrangements to do so at some future time, and promise to provide for you
when you did go?"

"I believe he did say something of that kind," replied Rod, hesitatingly.

"Do you believe he would have said even that the next morning!"

"Perhaps not, sir."

"You know he wouldn't, Rodman. You know, as well as I do, that Major
Appleby says a great many things on the impulse of the moment that he
sincerely regrets upon reflection. He told me himself the morning I left
Euston how badly he felt that you should have taken his hasty words so
literally. He said that he should do everything in his power to cause you
to forget them the moment you returned, as he hoped you would in a day or
two. He gave Snyder instructions to use every effort to discover you in
the city, where it was supposed you had gone, and provided him liberally
with money to be expended in searching for you. I am surprised that Snyder
has not found you out before this, especially as you are both in the
employ of the same company. Didn't you know that he was private secretary
to our superintendent?"

"Yes, sir; I did," replied Rod, "and----" He was about to add, "And he
knows where I am"; but obeying a more generous impulse, he changed it to
"and I have taken pains to avoid him."

"I am sorry for that," said the President; "for if he had only met you and
delivered