As if to reward him for interfering, the dog barked up loudly, and tried to make a spring at him; upon which the lady smothered the animal up, head and all. Another minute or two, and the train began to slacken speed. It was only an insignificant station, one not likely to be halted at for above a minute. The lunatic twisted his body out of the window, and shouted for the guard long before we were at a standstill. "Allow me to manage this," said the lord, quietly putting him down. "They know me on the line. Wilkins!" The man came rushing up at the call. He must have been out already, though we were not quite at a standstill yet. "Is it for the _Times_, my lord? I am going for it." "Never mind the _Times_. This lamp is not lighted, Wilkins. See the guard, and _get it done_. At once." "And ask him what the mischief he means by his carelessness," roared out the lunatic after Wilkins, who went flying off. "Sending us on our road without a light!--and that dangerous tunnel close at hand." The authority laid upon the words "Get it done," seemed an earnest that the speaker was accustomed to be obeyed, and would be this time. For once the lunatic sat quiet, watching the lamp, and for the light that was to be dropped into it from the top; and so did I, and so did the lady. We were all deceived, however, and the train went puffing on. The lunatic shrieked, the lord put his head out of the carriage and shouted for Wilkins. No good. Shouting after a train is off never is much good. The lord sat down on his seat again, an angry frown crossing his face, and the lunatic got up and danced with rage. "I do not know where the blame lies," observed the lord. "Not with my servant, I think: he is attentive, and has been with me some years." "I'll know where it lies," retorted the lunatic. "I am a director on the line, though I don't often travel on it. This _is_ management, this is! A few minutes more and we shall be in the dark tunnel." "Of course it would have been satisfactory to have a light; but it is not of so much consequence," said the nobleman, wishing to soothe him. "There's no danger in the dark." "No danger! No danger, sir! I think there is danger. Who's to know that dog won't spring out and bite us? Who's to know there won't be an accident in the tunnel? A light is a protection against having our pockets picked, if it's a protection against nothing else." "I fancy our pockets are pretty safe to-day," said the lord, glancing round at us with a good-natured smile; as much as to say that none of us looked like thieves. "And I certainly trust we shall get through the tunnel safely."