and I ought to be finding him."

The meeting at the table was over, and the fellows crowded around the
fire before starting home, and, perhaps, to hear one of Ben's stories of
the early days. The stranger watched Willis closely for some minutes,
then he called to him.

"Lad, ain't you the boy that was in the wreck of the Rocky Mountain
Limited, early in the spring? I've been watching you, and you sure remind
me of him." Willis's face brightened. In a flash he recognized the
fireman. He advanced with extended hand.

"Why, yes, sir, I am the boy, and you are the fireman. I have been
looking at you all evening and wondering where I had ever seen you
before. It's the whiskers that threw me off. How is the broken leg?"

The stranger held the boy's hand in his own and looked into his face.

"We got out lucky, didn't we, lad? Have you ever seen the little
Englishman since that day? He was a dandy, wasn't he?"

Chuck had been listening to the foregoing conversation.

"What wreck? What Englishman? Who is your friend?" he questioned.

The stranger spoke. "Why, don't you know about the wreck? Has he never
told any of you?" In answer to a chorus of "No's," the stranger drew his
chair closer to the fire and began to tell the story.

"So the lad has never told you, eh? He is a splendid fellow, this lad. I