Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: — Ill— NEEDLEY "1 yEEDLEY?" lk I It wasn't wholly an interrogation I 1 — it seemed to Madison that there JL was even sympathy in the parlor-car conductor's voice, as the other took his seat check. " Health," said Madison meekly. " Perfect rest and quiet — been overdoing it, you know." "Needley!"—the train conductor of the Bar Harbor Express, collecting the transportation, threw the word at Madison as though it were a personal affront. The tone seemed to demand an apology from Madison — and Madison apologized. " Health," he said' apologetically. " Perfect rest and quiet — been overdoing it, you know." " We're five minutes late now," grunted the conductor uncompromisingly and, to Madison, quite irrelevantly, as he passed on down the aisle. Somehow, this inspired Madison to consult his timetable. He drew it from his pocket, ran his eye down the long list of stations — and stopped at " Needley." Needley had an asterisk after it. By consulting a block of small type at thebottom of the page, he found a corresponding asterisk with the words: " Flag station. Stops only on signal, or to discharge eastbound passengers from Portland." John Garfield Madison went into the smoking compartment of the car for a cigar — several cigars — until Needley was reached some two hours later, when the dusky attendant, as he pocketed Madison's dollar, set down his little rubber-topped footstool with a flourish on a desolate and forbidding-looking platform. Madison was neither surprised nor dismayed — the parlor-car conductor, the train conductor and the timetable had in no way attempted to deceive him — he was only cold. He turned up his coat collar — and blew on his kid-gloved fingers. As far as he could see everything was white with a thin layer of snow — he kicked ...