s very hard."

The first signs of dawn were beginning to show by this time, and
as the sky brightened I told Miss Cullen that I was going to look
for the trail of the fugitives. She said she would walk with me,
if not in the way, and my assurance was very positive on that
point. And here I want to remark that it's saying a good deal if
a girl can be up all night in such excitement and still look
fresh and pretty, and that she did.

I ordered the crew to look about, and then began a big circle
around the train. Finding nothing, I swung a bigger one. That
being equally unavailing, I did a larger third. Not a trace of
foot or hoof within a half-mile of the cars! I had heard of
blankets laid down to conceal a trail, of swathed feet, even of
leathern horse-boots with cattle-hoofs on the bottom, but none of
these could have been used for such a distance, let alone the
entire absence of any signs of a place where the horses had been
hobbled. Returning to the train, the report of the men was the
same.

"We've ghost road agents to deal with, Miss Cullen," I laughed.
"They come from nowhere, bullets touch them not, their lead hurts
nobody, they take nothing, and they disappear without touching
the ground."

"How curious it is!" she exclaimed. "One would almost suppose it
a dream."

"Hold on," I said. "We do have something tangible, for if they
disappeared they left their shells behind them." And I pointed to
some cartridge-shells that lay on the ground beside the mail-car.
"My theory of aerial bullets won't do."

"The shells are as hollow as I feel," laughed Miss Cullen.

"Your suggestion reminds me that I am desperately hungry," I
said. "Suppose we go back and end the famine."

Most of the passengers had long since returned to their seats or
berths, and Mr. Cullen's party had apparently done the same, for
218 showed no signs of life. One of my darkies was awake, and he
broiled a steak and made us some coffee in no time, and just as
they were ready Albert Cullen appeared, so we made a very jolly
little breakfast. He told me at length the part he and the
Britishers had borne, and only made me marvel the more that any
one of them was alive, for apparently they had jumped off the car
without the slightest precaution, and had stood grouped together,
even after they had called attention to themselves by Lord
Ralles's shots. Cullen had to confess that he heard the whistle
of the four bullets unpleasantly close.

"You hav