Her rippling laugh was too sweet to be shrill; none the less it held in it a little flick of the whip of malice. "Listen," she said. "I did it out of pure hatefulness. You showed so plainly this afternoon that you wished to be quit of me--of the entire party--that I couldn't resist the temptation to pay you back with good, liberal interest. Possibly you will think twice before you snub me again, Howard, dear." Quickly he stopped and faced her. The others were a few steps in advance; were already boarding the service-car. "One word, Eleanor--and for Heaven's sake let us make it final. There are some things that I can endure and some others that I cannot--will not. I love you; what you said to me the last time we were together made no difference; nothing you can ever say will make any difference. You must take that fact into consideration while you are here and we are obliged to meet." "Well?" she said, and there was nothing in her tone to indicate that she felt more than a passing interest in his declaration. "That is all," he ended shortly. "I am, as I told you this afternoon, the same man that I was a year ago last spring, as deeply infatuated and, unhappily, just as far below your ideal of what your lover should be. In justice to me, in justice to Van Lew--" "I think your conductor is waiting to speak to you," she broke in sweetly, and he gave it up, putting her on the car and turning to confront the man with the green-shaded lantern who proved to be Bradford. "Any special orders, Mr. Lidgerwood?" inquired the reformed cattle-herder, looking stiff and uncomfortable in his new service uniform--one of Lidgerwood's earliest requirements for men on duty in the train service. "Yes. Run without stop to Little Butte, unless the despatcher calls you down. Time yourself to make Little Butte by eleven o'clock, or a little later. Who is on the engine?" "Williams." "Williams? How does it come that he is doubling out with me? He has just made the run over the Desert Division with the president's car." "So have I, for that matter," said Bradford calmly; "but we both got a hurry call about fifteen minutes ago." Lidgerwood held his watch to the light of the green-shaded lantern. If he meant to keep the wire appointment with Flemister, there was no time to call out another crew. "I don't like to ask you and Williams to double out of your turn, especially when I know of no necessity for it. But I'm in a rush. Can you two stand it?" "Sure," said the ex-cow-man. Then he ventured a word of his own. "I'll ride up ahead with Williams--you're pretty full up, back here in the car, anyway--and then you'll know that two of your own men are keepin' tab on the run. With the wrecks we're enjoying----" Lidgerwood was impatient of mysteries. "What do you mean, Andy?" he broke in. "Anything new?"