abode of
respectability and wealth. The lights were gleaming through the windows
of a room upon the lower floor, and Manning quietly opened the gate, and
screened himself behind some tall bushes that were growing upon the
lawn. Here he was effectually hidden, both from the inmates of the
house, and the passers-by upon the street. The scene that greeted his
vision was so peaceful and homelike, that Manning was convinced that
Duncan's family were entirely ignorant of his movements or his crime.
The father, a hale old gentleman with a smiling face, was reading aloud
to the assembled members of his family, his wife and two daughters, who
were busily engaged in some species of fancy work, so popular with
ladies at the present time, and their evident enjoyment of the narrative
was unmixed with any thought of wrong-doing or danger to one of their
family.

"How strange are the workings of circumstances," thought the detective.
"Here is a happy home, a family surrounded by wealth, refinement and
luxury, peaceful and contented, while a beloved member of it is now an
outcast from the world, a fugitive from justice, hiding from the
officers of the law, and vainly seeking to elude the grasp that sooner
or later will be laid upon his shoulder."

Silently maintaining his watch until the family retired, the detective
slowly made his way to his hotel, and as he tossed upon his pillow, his
dreams were peopled alternately with happy home-scenes of domestic
comfort and content, and a weary, travel-stained criminal, hungry and
foot-sore, who was lurking in the darkness, endeavoring to escape from
the consequences of his crime.

CHAPTER XVI.

Bob King Meets with a Surprise--His Story of Duncan's Flight--The
Detective Starts Westward.

The most important object now to be accomplished was to secure an
interview with Bob King, the brakeman, who had accompanied Duncan when
he left Des Moines. Manning was convinced that King was fully aware by
this time of the crime which Duncan had committed, and perhaps for a
share of the proceeds, had assisted him in his flight from justice.

Early on the following morning, therefore, he left the hotel, and
started off in the direction of the depot, resolved to make a tour of
the numerous boarding-houses before calling upon the chief of police. He
had already obtained an accurate description of the man he was in
search of, and had no doubt of recognizing him, should he be fortunate
enough to me