The first important train for which he must supply a crew was Number Three, the west-bound flyer, leaving Wadsworth at 2.30 P. M. As engineer, he had selected a man named Hummel, who, from the report, seemed to have had an exceptional experience. But as the morning progressed, Allan grew more and more uneasy over the prospect of choosing the wrong man for this important post, and finally decided to have a look at Hummel before announcing the detail. So he called up the freight-house and asked that that individual be sent over to him. Five minutes later, one of Stanley’s deputies ushered into the chief dispatcher’s office a man from whom Allan shrank instinctively as from a serpent. He was a thin, undersized fellow, with a face deeply pitted and with the ghastly pallour which smallpox sometimes leaves behind it. But it was not the complexion so much as the eyes which disgusted and repelled. It is difficult to describe the effect they produced—they were so venomous, so bloodshot, so reptilian. “Is your name Hummel?” Allan asked, speaking with an effort not to show his repulsion. “Yes, sir.” “You seem to have had a good deal of experience.” “Ten years of it,” answered Hummel, confidently. “What was the trouble?” “What trouble?” demanded Hummel truculently. “How does it come you’re here?” “Oh! Well, I never got a square deal. I ain’t no bootlicker I guess is the reason.” There was already a trace of hostility in his tone, as though he dimly felt the aversion his appearance had occasioned. “All right,” said Allan, “that’s all I want to know. Thank you for coming over.” He turned back to his work, and Hummel, after one venomous glance, stalked out the door. Allan watched him and his guard as they crossed the tracks toward the freight-house; then he reached for his list and scratched out Hummel’s name. But which name should be substituted? He hesitated for a moment and then, snatching up his hat, hastened over to the freight-house himself. Half an hour later he returned, with some little information as to the appearance of the owners of the several names. Fully half of them he had checked off as not to be sent out at all, unless it should prove absolutely necessary. From the other half he chose the men who would be needed during the next twenty-four hours.