ll, and have made my road earn and pay
dividends right through the panic.

All this is getting away ahead of events, however. The election
delayed us so that we couldn't couple on to No. 4 that afternoon,
and consequently we had to lie that night at Ash Forks. I made
the officers my excuse for keeping away from the Cullens, as I
wished to avoid Madge. I did my best to be good company to the
bluecoats, and had a first-class dinner for them on my car, but I
was in a pretty glum mood, which even champagne couldn't modify.
Though all necessity of a guard ceased with the compromise, the
cavalry remained till the next morning, and, after giving them a
good breakfast, about six o'clock we shook hands, the bugle
sounded, and off they rode. For the first time I understood how a
fellow disappointed in love comes to enlist.

When I turned about to go into my car, I found Madge standing on
the platform of 218 waving a handkerchief. I paid no attention to
her, and started up my steps.

"Mr. Gordon," she said,--and when I looked at her I saw that she
was flushing,--"what is the matter?"

I suppose most fellows would have found some excuse, but for the
life of me I couldn't. All I was able to say was,--

"I would rather not say, Miss Cullen."

"How unfair you are!" she cried. "You--without the slightest
reason you suddenly go out of your way to ill-treat--insult me,
and yet will not tell me the cause."

That made me angry. "Cause?" I cried. "As if you didn't know of a
cause! What you don't know is that I overheard your conversation
with Lord Ralles night before last."

"My conversation with Lord Ralles?" exclaimed Madge, in a
bewildered way.

"Yes," I said bitterly, "keep up the acting. The practice is
good, even if it deceives no one."

"I don't understand a word you are saying," she retorted, getting
angry in turn. "You speak as if I had done wrong,--as if--I don't
know what; and I have a right to know to what you allude."

"I don't see how I can be any clearer," I muttered. "I was under
the station platform, hiding from the cowboys, while you and Lord
Ralles were walking. I didn't want to be a listener, but I heard
a good deal of what you said."

"But I didn't walk with Lord Ralles," she cried. "The only person
I walked with was Captain Ackland."

That took me very much aback, for I had never questioned in my
mind that it wasn't Lord Ralles. Yet the moment she spoke, I
realized how much alike the two brothers' vo