Graustark

ss her lips as she broke away from him and threw herself into the arms of tall, excited Uncle Caspar

he growled. "We ca

e rough command. Lorry stepped instantly to the conductor's side, shook

r word out of you, I'll make you sweat blood b

demanded the conduc

you open that mouth of yours. Not another word!" Mr. Grenfall Lorry was not president of the road, nor was he i

o kill me. Just now he took out his watch and said if I did not run back for his niece in two minutes he'd call

distance behind his late companion and her uncle. Hurrying after them

hind whom stood the anxious man-servant and the maid. Into the coach she was drawn by the relieved o

air, her hands in those of her aunt. The little traveling cap was on the side of her head, her hair was loose and very much awry, strands

! I shall never, never

Tell me how it happened. We have been frantic,"

lamation was one of alarm. In an instant she was at his side, peering with terrified eyes at the bloodstains on his neck and face. "

of her section before he cou

inst the side of the coach. Please don't worry ab

d terribly. Sit there! N

l fully knew what was happening, the man-servant was bathing his head, the others looking on anxiously, the

said Uncle Caspar, critical

rry, closing his eyes comfortably.

ches, Uncle Caspar?" ask

o trim the hair away for a plaster and then bandage it I think the wound w

cle, is it

cannot break an American's head. Let me go to my own section and

age your head," she insist

rted toward his sectio

kless ride," he said, more as a question,

e said, a faint flush coming to her cheek, although her eyes looked unfalteringly into his

good. I shall join you as

. Aunt Yvonne smiled graciously, and he took his departure. While Hedrick was dressing the jagged little cut, Grenfall complacently surveyed the

e Hedrick assisting. One query filled the American's mind: "I wonder if I am to sit

completed. "See if they have gone to the diner, Hedrick,

ry, gazing wonderingly after him. "I'm not a king. That remind

par and his niece were facing him as he came up between the tables, and he saw, with no little regret, that he was to sit beside the aunt-directly opposite the girl, ho

no bandage," she s

is all. Only heroes may have dang

he asked, pointedly. "In my country it is a joy, and not a calamity. Wounds are the misf

utter his name. How had she learned it? N

y wife and my niece, Miss Guggenslocker," said the uncle, more

ever lost command of himself as at this moment. Guggenslocker! He could feel the dank sweat of disappointment starting on his brow. A butcher,-a beer maker,-a cobbler,-a gardener,-all synonyms of Guggenslocker. A sausage manuf

smile so tantalizing that he understood instinctively why she was reviving a topic once abandoned.

ovel writer," he said, "so I ha

have an ideal,"

be a heroine. Unless, of course, it would require heroi

he name of a heroine in a novel must be euphonious. That is an exacting rule." It was an open taunt

in the last chapter." She flushed beneath his now bright, keen eyes and the ready, though unexpected retort. Uncle Caspar placed his napkin to hi

rose only! He fancied he caught a sly look of triumph in her uncle's swift glance toward her. But Uncle Caspar was not a rose-he was Guggenslocker. Guggen

relief. "I am famished after my pleasant drive.

an appetizer," he said, obligingly,

l was still wondering how she had learned his name, and was on the point of asking several times during the conventional

rriage. The agent at P-- says it is a dangerous road, at the very edge of the mountain. He also increased the composure of my uncle and aunt b

ght we were rolling down the mountain," sa

her upward or downwards I could not tell. We never faile

little grief," he said, p

you?" she as

r-Mr. Guggenslocker, did the conductor object to holding the train?" he asked

ced him that it should be he

aid, Caspar, he did not understand a word you said. You were very much excited." T

glish, he was very good at gues

atened to call him out,"

oad conductor!" exclaimed U

u would call him out," interpose

d I meant-down not out! I intended to call him down, as you Americans say

afraid you wou

uctor. Will you please tell him I could not so condescend

that in America when two men pull their revolvers and go to shooting at each other, some one is

d," exclaimed Uncle Caspa

t more duels than he can cou

om one to the other. Aunt Yvonne shot a reproving look at the girl, whose fac

but his eyes were fixed and staring. The card was crumpling between the long, b

ht as quick as a flash, "He is no butcher,

you said to the conductor," c

e somehow felt as if a scene from some tragedy had been reproduced in that briefest of moments. Calmly and composedly,

e. You were not anywhere. I shall never forget your aunt's face when she sank into a chair, nor shall I feel again so near like dying as when she suggested that you might have fallen from the train. I sent Hedrick ahead to summon the conductor, but he had hardly left us when the engine whistled sharply and the train began to slow up

was addressing himself exc

ubt and perplexity, the train came to a standstill, and soon there was shouting on the outside. I climbed

lady in the c

sake, what have y

'' he exclaimed, and used some v

amned if he would-pardon the word, ladies. He was very angry, and said he would give orders to go ahead, but I told him

t out, as you have said-and I s

. Lorry, insisted on having it held for twenty minutes. The conductor insulted you, sir, by saying that you had more-ah, what is it?-gall than any idiot he had ever seen. When he said that, although I did not fully understand that it was a reflection on you, so ignorant am I of your language, I too

n refined American, 'stop talking,'" sa

n told me that it instructed him to hold the train if he wanted to hold his job. Job is situation, is it not? Well, when he read that message he said he would wait just twenty minutes. I asked him to tell me how you were coming to us, but he refused to an

ve like the-the very devil if

iss Guggenslocker, naively. "Our driv

ger face and expressive eyes during Uncle Caspar's recital. How sweet her voi

od if I had said other thin

e without its conductor. In the meantime, your Aunt Yvonne was pleading with the wretch. I hastened back to his side with my pistols in my pocket. It was then that I told him to start his train if he dared. That man will never know how close he was to death. One minute passed, and he coolly announced that but one minute was left. I had made up my mind to g

his frank confession, for he expected to hear words of disapproval from the uncle and aunt. His astonishment was increased by their utter disregard of these rather peculiar details. It was then that he realized how trusting she had been, how serenely unconscious of his tender and sudden passion. And had she told her relatives that she had kissed him, he firmly believed they would have smiled approvingly. Somehow the real flavor of romance was stricken from the ride by her candid admissions. What he had cons

ay is mine as birthright asserted itself. I escaped unhurt, while

bjected. "The pain that y

a woman should always be a pleasu

considered it a pain," reasoned Miss Guggenslocker. "H

occasionally that I am hurt, Miss Guggenslocker, I am liable to forget i

be your physician, and, like all physicians, prol

urther from his mind than servile flattery, as his rejoinder might imply. "Alas

" replied Mr.

osse," added his niece, a far

id Aunt Yvonne, and the jump that Lorry's heart gave was s

His heart sank like lead to the depths from which it had sprung. It required no effort on his part to see that he was alone in his infatuation. Thursday was more to h

Washington, Mr. Lorry?"

at that moment that he was homel

she said. "Now, in our country generation after genera

stark is located on the map," cried the young lady,

is in-" began Uncle Caspar, b

ommended that he study geography and discover us f

the map and would stock his negligent brain with all that history and the encyclopedia had to say of

Europe, Asia or Africa?" a

world," said Miss Gu

s is the

delweiss, Mr. Lorry. It is of the mountain, the plain and the sky. There a

ou say it must be above

Edelweiss, have what climate we will. Doctors do not send us on long journeys for our health. They tell us to move u

toward the south. You could not have J

udy your map. We are discernible to th

teners applauded with patriotic appreciation. "By the way, Mr. Gug-Guggenslocker, you say the conductor asked you for my name and you did not know it. M

iece told it to me after your arriva

it to Miss Guggenslocker

informant," she

u did not

eed. I am no

have read in my mind, in that event, for

n the table, her chin in her hand

hat coin from the porte

hours after

our name for me," she said,

mean that you

s I saw you I knew that you were the American as I had grown to know him through the books,-big, strong, bold and comely.

t she was jesting, happiness because he hoped she was not. He laughed awkwardly, absolutely unable

re was bitterness in the thought that he had come to her notice as a sort of specimen, th

with embarrassment. "I trust you have not found your first judg

name," she said, graci

ricans than I," he said. "You forg

ey were mere

spired by this strange, beautiful woman. How lovely, how charming, how naive, how queenly, how ind

An angel with a