ed-haired
youth would be allowed to remain at Garvan's Hotel over night.

As it chanced, it was a very good thing Nancy Nelson sent this message,
and addressed it as she did. But, of course, neither she nor Jennie
Bruce suspected how important the matter was at the time.

And, within a few minutes, something else gripped the attention of the
girls. They were discussing Jessie's chicken sandwiches, "and other odds
and ends," when a man walked down the aisle of the rocking coach toward
them.

"Oh, look, Nance!" whispered Jennie.

Nancy looked up. The towering figure of a man dressed in a gray suit,
with hat and gloves to match, stopped suddenly beside them. It was
Senator Montgomery, Grace Montgomery's father.

"Hul-_lo_!" he muttered, evidently vastly surprised to see the girls in
the train bound for Cincinnati.

"How do you do?" said Nancy, softly.

"Yes! you're the girl. I thought I was not mistaken," spoke the Senator,
and although he frowned he seemed to wish to speak pleasantly. "You go
to the same school as my daughter?"

"Yes, sir."

"Pinewood Hall?"

"Yes, sir," repeated Nancy.

"What is your name?"

"Nancy Nelson."

"I thought I could not be mistaken." The frown was gone from his face
now and his sly eyes twinkled in what was meant to be a jovial way.
"You girls are not running away, I suppose?"

"Oh, no, sir," said Nancy, timidly.

"What is the matter, then?" he asked, quickly. He held a folded paper in
his hand which he had evidently been reading.

"My----A gentleman who looks after me has been hurt and I am going to
him," responded Nancy, hesitatingly. "They have telegraphed for me."

It seemed as though the Senator's face paled. "You don't mean to say he
sent word to _you_?" he demanded.

"Oh, no! not Mr. Gordon."

The Senator's face became suddenly animated again. He smote one hand
heavily upon the chair back.

"Not my old friend, Henry Gordon--a lawyer?"

"Yes, sir."

"I saw he was hurt. Why! I myself am going to Cincinnati for the special
purpose of seeing if he really is seriously ill!"

"Indeed, sir?"

"Quite so," declared the Senator. "And he sent for _you_? I didn't know
he had a relative living, my dear."

"No," explained Nancy. "It was Scorch who sent for me."

"Scorch?"

"Mr. Gordon's office boy."

"Humph!"

"And I am not related to Mr. Gordon," explained Nancy, wishing to be
perfectly open and aboveboard. "But Mr. Gordon has always looked after
me and--and