swell detective story--"

The boy started out of the compartment.

"Oh, mah good Lord! Fo' th' love of honey cakes, don't!" gasped Shag,
grabbing him just in time. "Does yo' know who the colonel is?"

"No, but he's mighty white if he wants to buy a dollar's worth of books
and papers. I haven't sold much on this trip, but if he--"

"But he don't want to, boy! Don't you understan'? Jes' listen to me
right now! De colonel don't want nothin' but Walton an' his angle
worms!"

"Who's Walton? What road's he travel on?"

"He don't travel. He's daid, I reckon. But he done writ a book on
fishin' poles, an' dat's all the colonel reads when he ain't workin'
much. It's a book 'bout angle worms as neah as I kin make out."

"You mean Izaak Walton's Complete Angler, I guess," said a man, who
passed by just then on his way to the smoking compartment, and he
smiled genially at Shag.

"Dat's it, yes, sah! I knowed it had suffin t' do wif angle worms.
Well, boy, dat book's all de colonel ever reads when he's vacationin',
an' dat's whut he's doin' now--jest vacationin'.

"When we start away dis mawnin' he say to me, the colonel did: 'Now,
Shag, I don't want t' be boddered wif nuffin'. I don't want t' read no