Page:O'Higgins--The Adventures of Detective Barney.djvu/314

 slouch off up the road with his coat over his shoulder, on his travels again. And as soon as he was out of their sight he would “beat it” to Findellen, catch the first train to New York, and come dawdling nonchalantly into the Babbing Bureau to report to the Boss that he had found Elizabeth Baxter!

He fell asleep while he was dramatizing that scene with Babbing—after he had worked Babbing up to such heights of admiration of his cleverness that the scene was already too heart-tickling to be anything but a dream itself.

In the morning, everything happened very much as he had planned. After breakfasting in the kitchen, he got away without betraying himself to any one but the dog, at whom he winked triumphantly as he departed. He made short work of the road to Findellen, thanks to a passing farm wagon that gave him a lift. He arrived at the railroad station only