noon
What he did not suspect was that Mr. McVickar 's telegram might possibly have originated in Kittredge 's office . Asking the superintendent to have the service-car made ready immediately , he packed his handbag , left a note for Patricia , who was not yet visible , and another for Gantry , who was not in his office , and began the roundabout journey . In all his travelling up and down the State he had never found anything to equal the slowness of the special train . The noon meal , served by Kittredge 's cook in the open compartment , found the special less than fifty miles on its way , and comfortably waiting at that hour on a side-track among the sage-brush hills for the coming of a delayed train in the opposite direction . Four mortal hours were lost on the lonely siding . There was no station , and Blount could not telegraph . So far as he knew , the service-car might stay there for a day or a week .