ARRIVAL AT THE COAST 87 



on the way. Johnston and I bought five days' provisions and a 

 large lunch basket at the same time and had our five days' food 

 no matter what happened. At this time, there were no sleeping 

 cars and each man sat up or slept as it best suited him. We had 

 many adventures in crossing to Chicago but only one I will note. 



Late one evening, a man came on board with the usual belt 

 around him. We saw a brace of pistols in it and the miner said 

 to me: "That is a highwayman for sure and we are in for it to- 

 night." And I said to him: "We will not both sleep at the same 

 time," and we agreed that one of us would sit up awake while 

 the other slept. We did so and the man disappeared in the early 

 morning but no damage was done to any of the passengers, 

 although all seemed to be aware of their danger. 



In due course of time, we reached Chicago and there we 

 encountered our first confidence man. The station was placarded 

 with notices: "Beware of confidence men." When we reached 

 Chicago, I had a bag of wearing apparel and odds and ends that 

 I wanted to express and went into the express office. When I 

 came out I found Mr. Johnston talking with a spruce looking 

 young man to whom he introduced me as the son of Judge some- 

 body in Stratford. We had a pleasing conversation and, as it 

 was time for the train to pull out, we took our seats in the train 

 and Johnston said: "That young man is the son of one of my 

 friends and it is a great treat to have his company with us to 

 Canada." A few minutes before we started, the young man came 

 into the car and tapped Johnston on the shoulder and asked him 

 to walk to the door with him, and, as he asked Johnston to come 

 out and shut the door after him, Johnston said: "Oh, no, I wish 

 to sit in the car. What do you want?" The young man said: 

 "I want to see if I can borrow a little currency from you as I am 

 short on change." Johnston at once put his hand behind him as 

 if to draw his pistol and said: "Nary a red," shoved the man 

 out, shut the door and came back to me. We had been sitting 

 only a few minutes when a man came in with two valises. He 

 peered into every man's face and went out of the car into the 

 next one in front. Shortly after in came the conductor and he 

 said: "There is a bad case! Did you see that man going down 



