"'Scuse me, boss, but they's a lovin' couple in the stateroom forward that is in a powerful hurry for this. I can't talk to you now. I'll see you later." And he swaggered off, leaving the door of the buffet open. The conductor paused to close it, glanced in, started, stared, glared, roared: "What's this! Well, I'll be--a dog smuggled in here! I'll break that coon's head. Come out of there, you miserable or'nary hound." He seized the incredulous Snoozleums by the scruff of his neck, growling, "It's you for the baggage car ahead," and dashed out with his prey, just as Mallory, now getting new bearings on Marjorie's character, spoke across the rampart of his Napoleonically folded arms: "Well, you're a nice one!--making violent love to a conductor before my very eyes. A minute more and I would have----" She silenced him with a snap: "Don't you speak to me! I hate you! I hate all men. The more I know men the more I like----" this reminded her, and she asked anxiously: "Where is Snoozleums?" Mallory, impatient at the shift of subject, snapped back: "Oh, I left him in the buffet with the waiter. What I want to know is how you dare to----" "Was it a colored waiter?" "Of course. But I'm not speaking of----" "But suppose he should bite him?" "Oh, you can't hurt those nigger waiters. I started to say----" "But I can't have Snoozleums biting colored people. It might not agree with him. Get him at once." Mallory trembled with suppressed rage like an overloaded boiler, but he gave up and growled: "Oh, Lord, all right. I'll get him when I've finished----" "Go get him this minute. And bring the poor darling back to his mother." "His mother! Ye gods!" cried Mallory, wildly. He turned away and dashed into the men's room with a furious: "Where's that damned dog?" He met the porter just returning. The porter smiled: "He's right in heah, sir," and opened the buffet door. His eyes popped and his jaw sagged: "Why, I lef' him here just a minute ago." "You left the window open, too," Mallory observed. "Well, I guess he's gone." The porter was panic stricken: "Oh, I'm turrible sorry, boss, I wouldn't have lost dat dog for a fortune. If you was to hit me with a axe I wouldn't mind." To his utter befuddlement, Mallory grinned and winked at him, and murmured: "Oh, that's all right. Don't worry." And actually laid half a dollar in his palm. Leaving the black lids batting over the starting eyes, Mallory pulled his smile into a long face and went back to Marjorie like an undertaker: "My love, prepare yourself for bad news." Marjorie looked up, startled and apprehensive: "Snoozleums is ill. He did bite the darkey." "Worse than that--he--he--fell out of the window." "When!" she shrieked, "in heaven's name--when?" "He was there just a minute ago, the waiter says." Marjorie went into instant hysterics, wringing her hands and sobbing: "Oh, my darling, my poor child--stop the train at once!"