He was fast asleep.

If he would only keep asleep until we reached our destination! By and by I discovered that the rear car had been detached from the train at the last stopping-place.

This accounted satisfactorily for Sailor Ben's singular movements, and considerably calmed my fears.
Nevertheless, I did not like the aspect of things.
The Admiral continued to snooze like a good fellow, and was snoring melodiously as we glided at a slackened pace over a bridge and into Boston.
I grasped my pilgrim's bundle, and, hurrying out of the car, dashed up the first street that presented itself.
It was a narrow, noisy, zigzag street, crowded with trucks and obstructed with bales and boxes of merchandise.

I didn't pause to breathe until I had placed a respectable distance between me and the railway station.

By this time it was nearly twilight.
I had got into the region of dwelling-houses, and was about to seat myself on a doorstep to rest, when, lo! there was the Admiral trundling along on the opposite sidewalk, under a full spread of canvas, as he would have expressed it.
I was off again in an instant at a rapid pace; but in spite of all I could do he held his own without any perceptible exertion.