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 of how "any thing was to end" for them was indeed a mighty weight.

"The main thing will soon be to get word to your father as soon as we can. Newspaper accounts will make him believe—well, almost any thing. Doesn't it seem about a hundred years to you since two or three days ago?" he went on, as conversationally as he could. "That funny adventure in the train—our stopping with Mr. Hilliard—last night's excitement? We can't say we haven't had a good deal crowded in, since we bid Mr. Marcy and the Ossokosee good-bye, can we? Or that we haven't had enough of a story to tell your father when we get safe and sound to Halifax?"

"I shall be glad to find out sometime what made the explosion," said Gerald, easing his position, and already decidedly more tranquil.

"So shall I. They kept it from us as long as they could, didn't they?"

"You did from me, I know," Gerald answered. He gave Philip a grateful look. "You wanted to keep me from being frightened. O, I know. I sort of suspected that. How awfully good and—thoughtful—"