CHAPTER VIII

A FRIENDLY FOE


It required two days and a night to go by rail from Beverly to Dorfield
and as Mary Louise had passed a sleepless night at the school she
decided to purchase a berth on the sleeper. That made a big hole in her
surplus of eight dollars and she also found her meals in the dining car
quite expensive, so that by the time she left the train at Dorfield her
finances would be reduced to the sum of a dollar and twenty cents.

That would not have disturbed her, knowing that thereafter she would be
with Gran'pa Jim, except for one circumstance. The little man with the
fat nose, who had taken the train at Beverly, was still on board. All
the other passengers who had been on the train at that time had one by
one left it and been replaced by others, for the route lay through
several large cities where many alighted and others came aboard. Only
the little man from Beverly remained, quiet and unobtrusive but somehow
haunting the girl's presence in an embarrassing manner.

He seldom looked at her but was found staring from the window whenever
she turned her eyes toward him. At first she scarcely noticed the man,
but the longer he remained aboard the train the more she speculated as
to where he might be going. Whenever she entered the dining car he took
a notion to eat at that time, but found a seat as far removed from her
as possible. She imagined she had escaped him when she went to the
sleeper, but next morning as she passed out he was standing in the