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cluded completely from this intimate affair! The youth flushed under his sunburn. He felt bitterly toward Zed, and yet the fact that Zed was running away lay like a little lead weight somewhere at the base of Abner's throat. Clearly he would not see Zed again; Zed, with his good-natured wooden face and endless foolishness.

In the midst of this depressing mood, a sudden glorious view burst on his eyes which made him instantly forget the slight his friends had put upon him. The two companions were passing the L. & N. switch yard where the new railroad hitched on to the main line; there in the morning sunlight a small locomotive with two flat cars was puffing out of the switch yard on to the new track.

Tug saw it too for he shouted, "Look, Railroad Jones's injun's come!"

Instantly both youths set out at top speed after the puffing engine. The two flat cars were loaded with men who presently saw the boys running after them. The locomotives appeared not to be going fast, but Abner's best efforts gained nothing at all. He jerked off his hat and waved it for the train to stop. So did Tug. But the passengers began laughing at the two labourers trying to catch a train.

Tug bellowed desperately, "Hold on, you fools! Slow up! Let us on!" then gasped to Abner, "Missin' the first ride after we built the damn thing!" He bore ahead of Abner in a mighty effort to make this initial trip.

But the little locomotive steadily widened the gap. The men on the flats pointed and guffawed. Tug fell into desperate profanity.

At that moment a great fat man on the first flat went climbing over the tender at the risk of his neck. He got to where he could see the engineer and fireman. He gesticulated at them, then a miracle happened. The puffs ceased, came a wail of airbrakes, and a little later the train came backing toward the boys.

To Abner's amazement, the man who stopped the train was Railroad Jones. Evidently he had been off somewhere;