piece of baggage, the porter little knowing what was strapped so
carefully inside the bandbox.

Doctor Tremont and Phil had the section just across the aisle from
ours, and Phil carried his box up the step-ladder himself, and stowed
Matches carefully away in one corner before he began to take off his
shoes. When the curtains were all drawn and the car-lights turned down
low so that every one could sleep, Stuart sat up and began unbuckling
the strap around my box. I knew enough to keep still when he took the
lid off and gently stroked me. I had no intention of being sent back
to the baggage-car, if keeping quiet would help me to escape the
conductor's eyes.

Stuart stroked me for a moment, and then, cautiously drawing aside his
curtains, thrust his head out and looked up and down the aisle.
Everything was quiet. Then he gave the softest kind of a whistle, so
faint that it seemed little more than the echo of one; but Phil
heard, and instantly his head was poked out between his curtains.
Stuart held me up and grinned. Immediately Phil held up Matches and
grinned. After a funny pantomime by which, with many laughable
gestures, each boy made the other understand that he intended to allow
his pet freedom all night, they drew in their heads and lay down.

Stuart wanted me to sleep on the pillow beside him, but I was still
sulky, and retired to my box at his feet. In spite of the jar and
rumble of the train I slept soundly for a long time. It must have been
somewhere about the middle of the night when I was awakened all of a
sudden by a fearful crash and the feeling that I was pitching headlong
down a frightful precipice.