His acquiescence was ungraciously, and I believe I may say ambiguously, expressed; but it mattered little, for in three days from that time I took my trunk, Halicarnassus his cane, and we started on our travels.  An evil omen met us at the beginning.  Just as I was stepping into the car, I observed a violent smoke issuing from under it.  I started back in alarm.

“They are only getting up steam,” said Halicarnassus.  “Always do, when they start.”

“I know better!” I answered briskly, for there was no time to be circumlocutional.  “They don’t get up steam under the cars.”

“Why not?  Bet a sixpence you couldn’t get Uncle Cain’s dobbin out of his jog-trot without building a fire under him.”

“I know that wheel is on fire,” I said, not to be turned from the direct and certain line of assertion into the winding ways of argument.

“No matter,” replied Halicarnassus, conceding everything, “we are insured.”

Upon the strength of which consolatory information I went in.  By-and-by a man entered and took a seat in front of us.  “The box is all afire,” chuckled he to his neighbor, as if it were a fine joke.  By-and-by several people who had been looking out of the windows drew in their heads, rose, and went into the next car.

“What do you suppose they did that for?” I asked Halicarnassus.

“More aristocratical.  Belong to old families.  This is a new car, don’t you see?  We are parvenus.”

“Nothing of the sort,” I rejoined.  “This car is on fire, and they have gone into the next one so as not to be burned up.”

“They are not going to write books, and can afford to run away from adventures.”

“But suppose I am burned up in my adventure?”

“Obviously, then, your book will end in smoke.”

I ceased to talk, for I was provoked at his indifference.  I leave every impartial mind to judge for itself whether the circumstances were such as to warrant composure.  To be sure, somebody said the car was to be left at Jeru; but Jeru was eight miles away, and any quantity of mischief might be done before we reached it,—­if, indeed, we were not prevented from reaching it altogether.  It was a mere question of dynamics.  Would dry wood be able to hold its own against a raging fire for half an hour?  Of course the conductor thought it would; but even conductors are not infallible; and you may imagine how comfortable it was to sit and know that a fire was in full blast beneath you, and to look down every few minutes expecting to see the flames forking up under your feet.  I confess I was not without something like a hope that one tongue of the devouring element would flare up far enough to give Halicarnassus a start; but it did not.  No casualty occurred.  We reached Jeru in safety; but that does not prove that there was no danger, or that indifference was anything but the most foolish hardihood.  If our burning car had been in mid-ocean,