No tall bearded man with eye glasses showed up, and gaining the front platform of the coach Ben took up the package where it had landed and entered the next car.
“Fare, there,” pronounced the conductor of the train, confronting him.
“Oh, yes,” said Ben with a smile, resting his package on a radiator and producing the quarter Mr. Saxton had given him. “Ought to keep it to frame as a souvenir, I suppose,” added Ben to himself comically, “but it happens to be all the money I’ve got. First stop, conductor—the junction, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll go that far. Take fifteen cents out of that,” directed Ben, producing the reward coin.
“It’s twenty-five cents if you don’t have a ticket,” announced the conductor, “ten cents extra, that’s the rule.”
“That’s so,” said Ben with a wry grimace.
“You’d ought to have thought of that,” suggested the conductor.
“I didn’t have much time to think of anything except getting aboard this train double quick,” answered Ben. “You don’t happen to know a gentleman named Mr. Davis, do you, conductor?”
The fare collector shook his head in dissent and proceeded on his round of duty to the rear coach. Ben took up his package again and began to scan the passengers beyond him.