AND OTHER SKETCHES 205 



self, was at the table. As we sat down I noticed in front of 

 Sam an extra fine looking lobster. It was split down the 

 centre and certainly was a tempting morsel, and a glance 

 at Sam's face showed that he thoroughly appreciated the 

 look of his favorite dish and, pushing his plate to one 

 side, he confiscated dish and lobster, and calling for vine- 

 gar, salt, cayenne pepper, mustard and oil, straightway 

 laid himself out to mix an epicurean sauce for the tooth- 

 some shell fish. Recognizing that the schedule time for 

 supper was only twenty minutes, I started in to hurry 

 matters, but it was simply effort wasted. Soon the con- 

 ductor left the table to get his orders, remarking as he 

 went out that we had only a few minutes left. I shortly 

 followed him, calling to Sam to come along or we'd leave 

 him. Meeting the conductor on the platform, I took the 

 lamp from his hand, opened the refreshment room door, 

 gave a swing and a final warning of "all aboard" to the 

 solitary feeder. It was fully five minutes behind sched- 

 ule time when we pulled out from the station and we 

 never doubted for a moment that Page was on board. I 

 had gone forward to a front car to take a smoke with a 

 friend, and when the conductor came through he told 

 me that Page was not on the train. Here was a nice 

 mixture. Pool-selling was to start at eight o'clock Mon- 

 day evening and there was no chance for him to reach 

 Montreal before 10.30 that night. Feeling certain that 

 if he failed to keep his appointment Decker would give 

 the job to a local applicant, I asked the conductor what 

 chance there was of his reaching his journey's end be- 

 fore late Monday night. He didn't think there was any 

 chance of his getting east of Kingston. It appeared, how- 

 ever, that when our train left Cobourg there was a 

 through freight standing on the siding ready to follow 

 us, and if Page was equal to the emergency, the conductor 

 thought he might secure passage on it. 



By the time these explanations were given we were 

 slowing up for Grafton station, and I made a strong 

 appeal to the conductor to try and persuade the engineer 

 to delay matters until the freight arrived. It was a 



