Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/128

118 good-bye. She told him to write to her, and gave him her Chicago address.

"Tell your chums how sorry I was to disappoint them," she called to Ned as her train rolled out of the depot.

"I will," replied Ned.

Then, left alone as he was in the big city, he felt a sense of fear, and hardly knew what to do.

"Guess I'd better go straight back to Darewell and tell dad all about it," he said to himself.

He was soon in the station at which he had arrived the day previous, and where he had left his trunk. As he was going to the baggage room, to have it rechecked to Darewell, he caught sight of a man who seemed strangely familiar to him. The man had his back toward Ned, but when he turned the boy saw it was the postal inspector who had been at the offices of Skem & Skim.

"He's after me!" thought Ned. "He's on my track! I must not let him see me."

He turned suddenly away so the man could not observe his face. The inspector was talking to a policeman, and Ned overheard the bluecoat ask:

"Have you sent the telegram?"

"Yes, they'll be on the watch for him if he goes back home," was the reply. "They'll nab him as soon as he gets off the train. If he calls