said Miss Wood to me

A great laugh from the rest of the company made me aware that the Judge had consummated his tale of the "Sole Survivor." "And so," he finished, "they all went off as mad as hops because it hadn't been a massacre." Mr. and Mrs. Ogden--they were the New Yorkers-gave this story much applause, and Dr. MacBride half a minute later laid his "ha-ha," like a heavy stone, upon the gayety. "I'll never be able to stand seven sermons," said Miss Wood to me. "Talking of massacres,"--I now hastened to address the already saddened table,--"I have recently escaped one myself." The Judge had come to an end of his powers. "Oh, tell us!" he implored. "Seriously, sir, I think we grazed pretty wet tragedy but your extraordinary man brought us out into comedy safe and dry." This gave me their attention; and, from that afternoon in Dakota when I had first stepped aboard the caboose, I told them the whole tale of my experience: how I grew immediately aware that all was not right, by the Virginian's kicking the cook off the train; how, as we journeyed, the dark bubble of mutiny swelled hourly beneath my eyes; and how, when it was threatening I know not what explosion, the Virginian had pricked it with humor, so that it burst in nothing but harmless laughter. Their eyes followed my narrative: the New Yorkers, because such events do not happen upon the shores of the Hudson; Mrs. Henry, because she was my hostess; Miss Wood followed for whatever her reasons were--I couldn't see her eyes; rather, I FELT her listening intently to the deeds and dangers of the man she didn't care to tame. But it was the eyes of the Judge and the missionary which I saw riveted upon me indeed until the end; and they forthwith made plain their quite dissimilar opinions.