It was said, and he was glad of it, though he was wiping the perspiration from his face when the thing was done.  She was silent until they were standing at the steps of the side-tracked private car.

“Thank you,” she said simply.  “Of course, I’ll do what I can to keep Uncle Sidney from going—­and taking us.  What shall you say to him?”

“I am going to tell him that our track isn’t safe for the Nadia—­which is true enough.”

“Very well.  I’ll tell Aunt Hetty and Mrs. Van Bruce—­which may be more to the point.  But don’t be encouraged by that.  I have reason to believe that Uncle Sidney will have his way in spite of any or all of us.”

XVII

A NIGHT OF ALARMS

Ford put Miss Alicia up the steps of the Nadia and followed her into the vestibule, meaning to fight it out with Mr. Colbrith on the spot, and hoping he might have a private audience with the president for the doing of it.

The hope was not denied.  Penfield, who was acting as private secretary to Mr. Colbrith, en route, appeared in the passageway to say that Ford was wanted in the president’s state-room.

“Well, Mr. Ford, what are we waiting for?” was the querulous demand which served as Mr. Colbrith’s greeting when Ford presented himself at the door of the private compartment.

Ford’s reply lacked the deferential note.  He had reached a point at which his job was not worth as much as it had been.

“I have just brought Miss Adair back from the top of the pass, where we met Mr. Frisbie, my chief of construction.  I wished to ask him if he thought the track was safe for your car, and he says, most emphatically, that it is not.  I can not take the responsibility of sending the Nadia to the end-of-track.”

The president’s thin face was working irritably.  “I haven’t asked you to assume any responsibility, Mr. Ford.  If the track is safe for your material trains, it is safe enough for my car.  But I didn’t send for you to argue the point.  I desire to have the Nadia taken to the front.  Be good enough to give the necessary orders.”

Ford tried again.  In addition to the precarious track there were few or no unoccupied sidings, especially near the front.  Moreover, there was no telegraph service which might suffice for the safe despatching of the special train.  There might be entire sections over which the Nadia would have to be flagged by a man on foot, and—­

The president cut him off with almost childish impatience.

“I don’t know what your object is in putting so many stumbling-blocks in the way, Mr. Ford,” he rasped.  “A suspicious person might say that you have been doing something which you do not wish to have found out.”

Ford was a fair-skinned man, and the blood burned hotly in his face.  But, as once before under the president’s nagging, he found his self-control rising with the provocation.