Page:Boys of Columbia High on the Ice.djvu/176

160 "Well, I guess not. It was enough to give any fellow a scare. But try and forget it now. We can have dinner nicely at seven, and then walk over to see the stalled train come in. If Uncle Jim and the Jady are aboard we'll be there to meet them. But I'm surprised that he never wired you from San Francisco when the steamer docked. It isn't like my lawyer uncle. Perhaps they missed the Empress of Japan after all, and are coming on the next boat."

"That may be so; but somehow I seem to feel it right here that she is near me. Perhaps she wanted to surprise me, and that is why they didn't wire. But I've waited so long now, I suppose a few hours more or less won't matter much," and Ralph again sighed.

Leaving the station they went on to find that Mr. Allen had arrived from the south on a train that came in an hour previous. He quickly noticed several burns in Frank's coat, and asking questions was soon told the whole story. Frank was for belittling the adventure, but his father being a business man, asked leading questions, even turning to Ralph to help out.

In this way he heard all, even to the chase of the escaped convict, who had undoubtedly set the farm-house afire the better to hide his robbery.

"Remarkable," he declared, after the story was