letter saying that we would arrive to-day and not to-morrow."

One of the engineers proffered to the ladies the use of his own canvas
quarters till some course of action should have been decided on, an
offer which was gratefully accepted.

Soon afterward inquiries by the Colonel brought out definite information
as to the exact location of Frank's camp. A railway teamster, also, it
appeared, was starting in that direction after ties and offered to
transport a messenger as far as he was going, directing him, then, so
that he could not lose his way. Old Neb, the darky, thereupon, was
started on the search.

He was a different sort of negro from any which the mountain folk had
ever seen, and wore more airs than his "white folks." Dressed in a black
frock-coat as ornate as the Colonel's, although its bagging shoulders
showed that it had been a gift and not made for him, his hat was a silk
tile, a bit too large, and in one hand was a gold-headed cane on which
he leaned as his old legs limped under him. Among the mountaineers about
he was an object of the keenest curiosity, although down in the
bluegrass, where old family negroes frequently were let to grow into a
childish dignity of manner after years of faithful service and were not
disturbed in their ideas of their own importance, he would have been
regarded as merely an amusing infant of great age, reaping a reward for
by-gone merits in the careful consideration and indulgence now extended
to him. His inordinate vanity of his personal appearance and his dignity
might have given rise to smiles, down there; here there were those upon
the platform who laughed loudly as he walked away, boasting
vaingloriously, although he evidently feared the trip with the rough
teamster, that he would find "young Marse Frank" in a jiffy and have him