Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/118

 Mary Langton. He was neither worried nor unpleasantly excited by the uncertainty of his expectation. He waited to hear Babbing’s plans and follow his instructions, confidently.

When they arrived at Middletown, Babbing said: “There is n’t any dining-car on. I ’m going out to get something to eat. You stay where you are.” He added, in explanation: “You ’ll have to be hungry when you get to Langtons’.” And Barney understood that the plan of campaign was being prepared and his part in it decided on.

He sat back in his seat and dutifully began to nurse his hunger.

It was dark when they arrived at Beaverton and came out of the heat and glare of the Pullman into the coolness of a mountain night and the moist gusts of a wind that threatened rain. They were met at the car steps by an operative who took Babbing’s handbag without a word and led the way to a waiting automobile—a covered touring car that throbbed with an impatient engine, its lights glaring on