Miss True Pettis had not shown her Uncle Jabez’s letter and she had feared that perhaps her mother’s uncle {whom she had never seen nor known much about) might not have written as kindly for his niece to come to the Red Mill as Miss True could have wished.  But Miss True was poor; most of the Darrowtown friends had been poor people.  Ruth had felt that she could not remain a burden on them.

Somehow she did not have to explain all this to Doctor Davison.  He seemed to understand it when he nodded and his eyes twinkled so glowingly.

“Cheslow is a pleasant town.  You will like it,” he said, cheerfully.  “The Red Mill is five miles out on the Lake Osago Road.  It is a pretty country.  It will be dark when you ride over it to-night; but you will like it when you see it by daylight.”

He took it for granted that Uncle Jabez would come to the station to meet her with a carriage, and that comforted Ruth not a little.

“You will pass my house on that road,” continued Doctor Davison.  “But when you come to town you must not pass it.”

“Sir?” she asked him, surprised.

“Not without stopping to see me,” he explained, his eyes twinkling more than ever.  And then he left her and went back to his seat.

But Ruth found, when he had gone, that the choke came back into her throat again and the sting of unshed tears to her eyes.  But she would not let those same tears fall!

She stared out of the plate-glass window and saw that it was now quite dark.  The whistle of the fast-flying locomotive shrieked its long-drawn warning, and a group of signal lights flashed past.  Then she heard the loud ringing of a gong at a grade crossing.  They must be nearing Cheslow now.

And then she saw that they were on a curve quite a sharp curve, for she saw the lights of the locomotive and the mail car far ahead upon the gleaming rails.  They began to slow down, too, and the wheels wailed under the pressure of the brakes.

She could see the signal lights along the tracks ahead and then—­ with a start, for she knew what it meant—­ a sharp red flame appeared out of the darkness beyond the rushing engine pilot.

Danger!  That is what that red light meant.  The brakes clamped down upon the wheels again so suddenly that the easily-riding coach jarred through all its parts.  The red eye was winked out instantly; but the long and heavy train came to an abrupt stop.

CHAPTER II

 Reno

But the Limited had stopped so that Ruth could see along the length of the train.  Lanterns winked and blinked in the dark as the trainmen carried them forward.  Something had happened up front of more importance than an ordinary halt for permission to run in on the next block.  Besides, the afternoon Limited was a train of the first-class and was supposed to have the right of way over all other trains.  No signal should have stopped it here.