e you were talking to him."

"Well, I'm near enough to catch you now!" said Holmes, and he made a
grab for Bessie, and caught her just as she started to run away. He
began dragging her across the tracks and toward the state line, but Bill
Burns came out of the post office at that moment.

"Here, you let her alone!" he shouted, springing forward, and Holmes
dropped Bessie's arm to ward off the blow that Burns aimed at him.

"What are you butting in for?" he snarled, "Want to get yourself in
jail?"

"Never you mind what I want to do," said Burns. "Don't you try to touch
either of those girls again! If you do, you'll find that I can hit you
as hard as you ever was hit in your life. And if I ever get into jail,
you won't be the one to put me there, either--I'll bet money on that!"

There might have been more argument, but just then the whistle of the
approaching train sounded, and a moment later it had drawn into the
station, separating the two girls and Burns from Holmes very
effectually.

Bessie and Dolly sprang up the steps at once, and turned to wave
good-bye to Bill Burns, who had helped them so splendidly. He stood
below, grinning at them, and waving his hand, and as they began to move
out of range he called out cheerily to them: "Well, I'll be over to see
Walt pretty soon. Don't forget what I look like!"

"We certainly won't," Bessie answered.

Then they went inside, and sank gratefully and happily into the first
empty seat they saw. They were still hungry, but at least they were
safe now from the pursuit of Holmes and Jake Hoover, and they were so
grateful for that that they were entirely willing to let their hunger
be forgotten.

And they had not been seated more than a minute, when Bessie, at least,
had new cause for feeling happy, for a man's voice sounded in her ear,
and she looked up in surprise to see Charlie Jamieson, the lawyer,
bending over them.

"Well, what are you doing here?" he exclaimed.

They told him as quickly as they could, both girls joining in the story,
and his eyes grew grave as he listened.

"Well, I owe you an apology, Bessie," he said, when they had finished
their tale. "I certainly thought you were all off about Holmes, and I'm
still puzzled to account for his being mixed up in this. But there's no
doubt that he is, from what you tell me--none at all! He's a hard man
to have to fight, too. You did mighty well to get rid of him as well as
you did. You left him back there at T