CHAPTER II
THE MISSING PASSENGER
AN endless corridor it seemed to Barbara Thurston as little by littleshe dragged her drooping burden to the end of the aisle. Reaching thenarrow passage that led past the staterooms, she was obliged to creep onhands and knees along the slippery lower side of the car.
Suddenly she heard a groan.
Bab glanced apprehensively at the curtains that hung over the door ofthe smoking room. The curtains now stood out at a sharp angle. A thincloud of smoke filtered out from the smoking compartment.
"Oh, there's some one in there," exclaimed the girl. But she had otherwork to do just then. The young woman struggled on, at last reaching theplatform that now stood in the air some feet above the track.
"Jump! We'll catch you," called a voice.
"I--I can't. Help me. My companion is hurt."
"She's got someone with her. Get up there," commanded a sharp voice.
Two trainmen clambered to the platform.
"Is the girl dead?" demanded one.
"I don't know. Oh, please hurry," begged Barbara in an agonized tone.
The men quickly lifted down Grace Carter's limp form. Then they turnedto assist Barbara, but she already had swung down without assistance.Mollie was kneeling beside Grace, other passengers crowding about theunconscious girl who lay stretched out on the ground beside the track.Someone pushed through the crowd to Grace and thrust a bottle ofsmelling salts under her nose.
This served to restore her to consciousness, and she feebly brushed thebottle aside.
"She's alive," screamed Mollie, almost beside herself.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Barbara in an ecstacy of joy.
Grace Carter sat up dazedly.
"Are you hurt, dear?" urged Bab.
"I--I don't know. I think not. Oh, it was awful. I--I thought the worldsurely was coming to an end. Was anyone--anyone killed?"
"No," answered a voice from the crowd. "Some of us got a fine shakingup, but the train was running so slowly that the shock of the accidentwas not very severe."
"What was the matter?" asked Grace as Barbara assisted the tremblinggirl to her feet.
"The trainmen say it was a loose rail. They've been putting in new railsat this point and the train was running slowly on that account, the worknot yet being entirely finished."
At this juncture the conductor came bustling up, ordering the passengersto go to the cars ahead, which had not left the track. The train was tomove on in a few minutes. A flagman had been stationed some distance tothe rear to stop any following trains and the conductor was anxious toreach the next station ahead to telegraph for a wrecking train andreport the wreck of the sleepers. A pleasant-faced woman whom Barbarahad seen on the train the day before, stepped up and offered to assistthem, which she did by placing an arm about Grace, helping to supportthe latter in the walk to the cars.
"I am Miss Thompson, from Chicago," said the woman. "My father is withme. I saw you yesterday and wanted to speak to you. Are you going toChicago?"
"Yes. You are very kind," answered Barbara.
"I wonder if all the passengers were gotten out of the sleeper?" askedMiss Thompson when they had finally reached the cars up ahead and Gracehad been comfortably disposed of in another sleeper.
Barbara started.
"Oh, I forgot. Conductor! There was a man in the smoking compartment ofour car."
The porter who had followed them with the other passengers and suchluggage as he could find, shook his head.
"I know there was. I had forgotten all about it," declared Bab. "I heardsomeone groan in there as I passed the compartment with my friend. Whereis the man who occupied the lower berth of section thirteen?"
No one had seen him. All the other passengers had been accounted for,but no one had seen the tall, slim, sandy-haired man from section numberthirteen.
"Then he is in that smoking compartment. I saw him when he went there.The compartment was on fire when I passed it," cried Barbara Thurston,springing up, her face flushed, her eyes large and troubled.
"If there's anyone there the men will find him. There was no fire inthat car," said the conductor, with which statement the porter agreed.
"There was smoke," declared Bab. "I don't know about fire. I do knowthat I'm going back to find out about that man," she announced.
"Come back," called the conductor. "We're going to start."
Unheeding, Barbara ran for the door, and, leaping from the platform,started on a run back to the wrecked sleeper. The conductor wasdetermined to move his train, but the passengers objected so strenuouslythat he reluctantly decided to wait and make a further hurried search ofthe wrecked sleeper.
With a porter and half a dozen passengers the conductor followedBarbara. She could smell the smoke before she reached the car. Hastilyclimbing to the platform, she crawled in. By the time she had gotteninto the corridor a porter had also climbed up. The smoke was so thickand suffocating that the girl choked and coughed.
"He's here," she cried, as a faint groan reached her ears. "Hurry! Oh,do hurry!" Then Bab's words were lost in the fit of coughing that hadseized her.
Three men pushed their way into the smoking compartment. They saw thatthe carpet was smouldering. It had probably been set on fire by aburning cigar or a lighted match. There was no blaze, just a dullsmoulder and a lot of smoke. It did not seem possible that one couldlive in that atmosphere for very long.
Suddenly the porter stumbled over the form of a man. It was the formeroccupant of section number thirteen.
"Young woman, get out of here at once," commanded the conductor. "Wewill take care of this man."
Bab staggered out to the platform, where she waited. A minute later themen came out bearing the unconscious form of the stranger. Barbara askedif he were dead. The men said no, but that he was half suffocated fromthe smoke he had inhaled. They carried the man on ahead to the train andup to the dining car, after which a doctor was hurriedly summoned fromone of the other cars. In the meantime Barbara had returned to hercompanions, who were anxiously awaiting her reappearance. She told themof finding the man, and was warmly commended by the passengers for herbravery.
"I do wish we could get word to Ruth Stuart that we are all right," saidBarbara, after she had related the story of the finding of the man fromsection thirteen.
"Ruth Stuart?" questioned Miss Thompson. "I wonder if by any chance shecould be related to Robert Stuart, a Chicago broker?"
"Why, she is his daughter. Do you know the Stuarts?" cried Barbara, asmile lighting up her face still pale and somewhat drawn.
"No, but my father wishes to know Mr. Stuart. Only yesterday he wasspeaking of him. I should not be surprised if he were to call on Mr.Stuart soon to discuss a business matter with him."
"The world is small, after all, isn't it?" smiled Bab. "We are on ourway to Chicago to visit the Stuarts. We are friends of Ruth Stuart. Wefour are known to our friends as the 'Automobile Girls.'"
The readers of this series must undoubtedly feel well acquainted withthat quartette of sweet, dainty, lovable girls, Ruth Stuart, Barbara andMollie Thurston and Grace Carter, who were met with in the first volumeof this series, "THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT." Their acquaintancereally dated from the time Barbara Thurston so pluckily stopped a teamof runaway horses driven by Ruth Stuart, a wealthy western girl, thensummering at Kingsbridge, the home of the Thurstons. A warm friendshipsprang up almost at once between the two girls, culminating in a longtrip in Ruth's automobile, during which journey Ruth, Bab and MollieThurston, their friend Grace Carter, and their chaperon, Aunt SallieStuart, met with many exciting adventures. It was on this eventful trip,as will be recalled, that Barbara distinguished herself by causing thearrest of a society jewel thief, at the same time heaping coals of fireon the head of a girl cousin who had treated Barbara and Mollie withscornful contempt.
The girls were next heard from in "THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THEBERKSHIRES," to which region, chaperoned, as always, by Ruth's AuntSallie, th
ey had driven in Ruth's car for a month's stay in a lonelycabin in the Berkshire Hills. Their experiences with the "Ghost of LostMan's Trail" was not the least of their exciting adventures there; infact, their stay in the mountains was filled with a succession ofstrange happenings that thrilled the girls as nothing in their livesever had done before.
By this time they considered themselves veteran automobilists andseasoned travelers. As related in "THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THEHUDSON," the now famous quartette showed themselves fully equal to themore than ordinary emergencies they met with from time to time on a mosteventful journey. From balking highwaymen to fighting a forest fire thatfor a time threatened the ancestral home of Major Ten Eyck, whose gueststhey were at the time, the "Automobile Girls" fully lived up to thereputation they had earned for themselves.
After their trip through the Sleepy Hollow country, Ruth had returned toher home in Chicago, while Mollie, Barbara and Grace had settled downto their studies in the Kingsbridge High School. But with the approachof the holidays had come Ruth's cordial invitation to spend Christmaswith her in her own home, not forgetting to mention "Mr. A. Bubble,"who, she promised, would do his part toward making their visit a livelyone. The three girls had set out on their journey to the Windy City onthe Chicago Express, that journey having been interrupted in a mostunexpected manner, as already related.
* * * * *
The conductor sent off a message for them to Ruth Stuart at the nextstop. It was a characteristic message from Barbara, reading:
"Train wrecked. 'Automobile Girls' safe. Arrive some time.
"GRACE, MOLLIE, BAB."
This telegram for a time created no little excitement in the Stuarthome.
Daylight was upon them by the time the train started from the scene ofthe wreck. Grace said she felt as though she had contracted a severecold, for she was aching in every muscle of her body. Mollie declaredthat she was all right, but Bab averred that she knew she hadn't been inbed in a hundred years.
The dining car was opened early, for all the passengers felt the need ofsomething more sustaining than fright. When the girls came back from thedining car they felt much better. Grace had suffered no seriousinjuries, but Bab's face was scratched from the particles of brokenglass that had showered over her when the windows burst in.
A young man was occupying Barbara's seat when she entered the car theyhad occupied since the accident. He was leaning back against the highchair. His eyes were closed and a bandage was bound about his head.
"That's the man from number thirteen," whispered Barbara over hershoulder to Mollie. He glanced up, met Barbara's eyes and smiled.
"I am very glad to see that you weren't seriously hurt," said Bab.
The young man rose, supporting himself by the back of the chair.
"Are these your seats?" he asked.
"Yes, but please do not disturb yourself," urged Bab, taking a seatacross the aisle. The young man leaned toward her.
"You are Miss Thurston, are you not?" he asked.
Barbara nodded, flushing a little.
"I have been told that I practically owe my life to you. The fire wasnothing but a smoulder of the carpet, but I was slowly beingasphyxiated. Thirty minutes more and it would have been all up with me.Even had I been rescued too late to get this train it would have beenserious for me. My presence in Chicago to-day is imperative. I might saythat it involves my whole future. You see, my dear young lady, you havedone more for me than you perhaps realize. You are going to Chicago?"
"Yes; we are going on a visit to our friends, Mr. Robert Stuart and hisdaughter."
"Robert Stuart!" exclaimed the young man. Then his face grew hard.
Suddenly the conversation that she had overheard the previous nightflashed into the mind of Barbara Thurston. The color left her face. Theyoung man's keen eyes observed her change of expression. He shot a sharpglance of inquiry at her.
"I have a slight acquaintance with Mr. Stuart and his daughter," he saidcoldly. "I also know intimate friends of theirs, Mr. and Mrs. Presby andtheir daughter. Therefore I may have the pleasure of meeting you again.I think perhaps I had better lie down and rest for the remainder of thejourney. By the way," he continued, after a slight hesitation, "did youperchance discover a bundle of papers when you found me in thecompartment on the other car?"
"Oh, I beg your pardon!" exclaimed Bab. "I did find some papers. Theyare in my bag. I picked them up from the floor of the car thinking theymight be of value to you."
Slightly confused, Barbara opened her bag, and after turning over itscontents drew forth a bundle of papers held together with rubber bands.She handed the bundle to the young man.
The smile that lit up his face as he thanked her changed his expressioncompletely. It was almost a gentle smile, and seemed strangely out ofplace on that cold, calculating face.
"Here is my card. I am rated as a cold, heartless man. But, my dear MissThurston, I have at least one virtue--gratitude. If ever you are in needof assistance in any way do not hesitate to call upon me," he said,extending a hand to Barbara as he rose rather unsteadily to his feet.Bab mechanically dropped the card into her bag without looking at it,closing and dropping the bag on the floor beside her before acceptingthe hand. The touch of the cold fingers of the man's hand sent a feelingof dislike through her. It recalled to her mind more vividly than everthe conversation she had overheard in the sleeper.
"I hope I never shall see him again," muttered Barbara, just as MissThompson came smiling up to them. But Barbara Thurston was destined tosee the man whom she had rescued, though under circumstances that shelittle dreamed of at the present moment.