About three o'clock they reached a town.

Here the railroad came directly from Malta, but there was but one train a day each way.
The man went to the public stopping-place and asked for a room, and boldly demanded a private place for his "sister" to rest for a while.

"She is my little sister," he told himself in excuse for the word.

"She is my sister to care for.

That is, if she were my sister, this is what I should want some good man to do for her." He smiled as he went on his way after leaving the girl to rest.