Page:Top-Notch Magazine, May 1 1915 (IA tn 1915 05 01).pdf/25

 if the man really turned out to be Weasel Morrison?

On at least one account, Ruthven would much have preferred that Morrison should keep his liberty. His capture meant an airing in court of the lawless work in the Catskills, and a dragging in the mire of dishonor of the name of a classmate. That classmate was now recovering the ground his false step had lost for him, and it might cost him dear to have his error published by Morrison. But, nevertheless, Ruthven felt that the law required a duty of him.

"I hope the fellow isn't Morrison," he said to himself as he got up to go into the coach ahead to carry his investigations further.

Before he could reach the front platform, the conductor entered the car. "Jupiter!" exclaimed the trainman. "I thought you were with the superintendent's party?"

"I was," answered Ruthven, "but I thought I saw somebody I knew on the train as it pulled by, and I jumped on the last car."

"Make a mistake?"

"I don't know yet. Just come this way with me for a minute."

lie stepped out on the swaying platforms between the cars, and peered through the glass top of the door of the second coach. The conductor followed him obligingly.

"See that man in the gray cap, sitting on the left side, about the middle of the car?" Ruthven asked.

"Oh, that fellow! Yes, I see him. He got aboard in Dakota somewhere, and is traveling to Dry Wash."

"You don't happen to know his name, I suppose?"

"Hardly; but" The conductor paused, evidently turning some matter over in his mind. "Come back into the rear car a moment," he added presently.

Ruthven went with him, and they sat down together in a forward seat.

"Are you acquainted in Burt City?" the trainman went on.

"A little."

"Do you know Miss Lois McKenzie, of that place?"

Ruthven was startled somewhat by this question. Why had the conductor dragged Miss McKenzie into the discussion?

"Yes," he answered, "I am acquainted with Miss McKenzie."

"Then perhaps I can give you a line on who that man in the gray cap is. Miss McKenzie boarded this train at Williamsburg and rode to Burt City. She sat with that man part of the way and seemed to know him. Maybe, if he's a mutual friend, you can now guess who he is?"

"If he's a friend of Miss McKenzie's," said Ruthven, "then he isn't the one I know at all. I'll pay my fare to the next station and get off there, taking the first train back to Burt City. I made a fool move when I boarded Seventeen."

"Well, we all make fool moves occasionally," said the conductor in an attempt to be soothing. "Okaday is your stop, but you won't be able to get a train back until late this afternoon." He took the bill Ruthven handed him and returned some change. "Any idea what Durfee had up his sleeve, back at Bluffton?" he queried.

"Not the least."

The conductor moved on, looking somewhat incredulous. Ruthven did not notice the look, for he was thinking of his folly in losing a whole day when he should have been attending to the foreman's business at the bank in Burt City.

When the train halted at Okaday, which appeared to be a town of considerable size, a man with a truckload of express matter was pounding on the closed door of the express car. "What's the matter in there?" the man with the truck was asking of a brakeman.