sm honors. True to their resolve,
following Miss Ladd's warning lecture, they kept the subject of their
mission out of their conversation, and it is probable that no reference
to it would have been made during the entire 300-mile journey if
something had not happened which forced it keenly to the attention of
every one of them.

The train on which they were traveling was a limited and the first stop
was fifty miles from Fairberry. A few moments after the train stopped, a
telegraph messenger walked into the front entrance of the parlor car and
called out:

"Telegram for Miss Harriet Ladd."

The latter arose and received the message, signed the receipt blank, and
tore open the envelope. Imagine her astonishment as she read the
following:

"Miss Harriet Ladd, parlor car, Pocahontas Limited: Attorney Pierce
Langford is on your train, first coach. Bought ticket for Twin Lakes.
Small man, squint eyes, smooth face. Watch out for him. Letter follows
telegram. Mrs. Hannah Hutchins."

CHAPTER VII.

A DOUBLE-ROOM MYSTERY.

Miss Ladd passed the telegram around among the girls after writing the
following explanation at the foot of the message:

"Pierce Langford is the Fairberry attorney that represented scheming
relatives of Mrs. Hutchins' late husband, who attempted to force money
out of her after the disappearance of the securities belonging to Glen
Irving's estate. Leave this matter to me and don't talk about it until
we reach Twin Lakes."

Nothing further was said about the incident during the rest of the
journey, as requested by Miss Ladd. The girls knitted, rested, chatted,
read, and wrote a few postcards or "train letters" to friends. But
although there was not a word of conversation among the Camp Fire
members relative to the passenger named in Mrs. Hutchins' telegram, yet
the subject was not absent from their minds much of the time.

They were being followed! No other construction could be put upon the
telegram. But for what purpose? What did the unscrupulous lawyer--that
was the way Mrs. Hutchins had once referred to Pierce Langford--have in
mind to do? Would he make trouble for them in any way that would place
them in an embarrassing position? These girls had had experiences in
the last year which were likely to make them apprehensive of almost
anything under such circumstances as these.

Warned of the presence on the train of a probable agent of the family
that Mrs. Hutchins had under suspicion, th