the revolver in his side coat pocket. By
asking questions and making judicious replies he passed what he felt was
the dark mark in that mixed company of I.W.W. men; and at length, one by
one, they melted away to their warmer corners, leaving Kurt by the door.
He did not mind the cold. He wanted to be where, at the first indication
of a stop, he could jump off the train.

With his hand on his gun and hugging the bulging coat pockets close to
him, Kurt settled himself for what he believed would be interminable
hours. He strained eyes and ears for a possible attack from the riffraff
I.W.W. men hidden there in the car. And that was why, perhaps, that it
seemed only a short while until the train bumped and slowed, preparatory
to stopping. The instant it was safe Kurt jumped out and stole away in
the gloom. A fence obstructed further passage. He peered around to make
out that he was in a road. Thereupon he hurried along it until he was
out of hearing of the train. There was light in the east, heralding a
dawn that Kurt surely would welcome. He sat down to wait, and addressed
to his bewildered judgment a query as to whether or not he ought to keep
on carrying the burdensome rifle. It was not only heavy, but when
daylight came it might attract attention, and his bulging coat would
certainly invite curiosity. He was in a predicament; nevertheless, he
decided to hang on to the rifle.

He almost fell asleep, waiting there with his back against a fence-post.
The dawn came, and then the rosy sunrise. And he discovered, not half a
mile away, a good-sized town, where he believed he surely could hire an
automobile.

Waiting grew to be so tedious that he decided to risk the early hour,
and proceeded toward the town. Upon the outskirts he met a farmer boy,
who, in reply to a question, said that the town was Connell. Kurt found
another early riser in the person of a blacksmith who evidently was a
Yankee and proud of it. He owned a car that he was willing to hire out
on good security. Kurt satisfied him on that score, and then proceeded
to ask how to get across the Copper River and into Golden Valley. The
highway followed the railroad from that town to Kahlotus, and there
crossed a big trunk-line railroad, to turn south toward the river.

In half an hour, during which time Kurt was enabled to breakfast, the
car was ready. It was a large car, rather ancient and the worse for
wear, but its owner assured Kurt that it would take him where h