ions for us."

Darkness fell, and the porters moved about, making up berths and
answering the hundred and one insistent calls of the passengers.

The girls went to bed with no protest whatever and were soon sleeping
the sleep of healthy youth. It was toward midnight that they were rather
rudely jerked out of this beautiful sleep by a sudden and almost violent
stopping of the train.

Betty, who was sleeping in a lower berth, she and Grace having decided
to take turns, sat up and peered out of the grimed window into the
gloom. No station lights greeted her, as she expected confidently they
would. Nothing but inky, startling blackness.

That she was not the only one roused was proved by the subdued sound of
voices raised in sleepy protest.

"They ought to put that engineer in prison for stopping like that," said
a man's voice.

"Gee! I thought it was a wreck, sure," came another surly voice.

At this moment a couple of legs dangled themselves over the side of
Betty's berth and in another minute the owner of them slid down beside
Betty. Betty giggled nervously, but Grace clutched her arm and shook it.

"Listen!" she said. "There's nothing to laugh about. This is a hold-up,
that's what it is! You know what your father said about there being a
lot of them around this place."

That this conclusion had been reached by some one else in the car was
proved by a woman's voice that rose shrilly above the rest.

"It's a hold-up, that's what it is!" she cried, adding, with what seemed
to Betty ridiculous panic: "Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do?"

"Better stop making a fuss, first off," growled another masculine voice,
and again Betty giggled nervously.

"Goodness, I hope I don't have to get out in my nightie," she said, and
poked her head out through the curtains.

"Look out," warned Grace, pulling her back. "You may get shot or
something."

"Don't be silly," retorted Betty, not altogether decided whether to be
frightened or amused by the situation. "There isn't anything out there
but a lot of funny looking heads sticking through the curtains."

"I don't see how you can laugh about it," said Grace, through chattering
teeth. "I don't think it would be any j-joke to have all our m-money
taken from us----"

"Sh-h--be quiet," warned Betty, peeping again through the slit in the
curtain. "Somebody's coming. Listen!"

Grace listened, and so, evidently, did every one else in the car. No
wonder that, scared though she