re stooping over some one who lay on
the ground. Then the taller of the two started on a dog-trot along the
train looking for an empty. He found one four cars away and ran back
again. The two lifted the unconscious man into the empty box-car, and,
getting in themselves, stayed for three or four minutes. When they
came out, after closing the sliding door, they cut up over the railroad
embankment toward the town. One, the short one, seemed to limp.

The tramp was wary. He waited for ten minutes or so. Some women came
down a path to the road and inspected the automobile. When they had
gone, he crawled into the box-car and closed the door again. Then he
lighted a match. The figure of a man, unconscious, gagged, and with
his hands tied, lay far at the end.

The tramp lost no time; he went through his pockets, found a little
money and the cuff-links, and took them. Then he loosened the gag--it
had been cruelly tight--and went his way, again closing the door of the
box-car. Outside on the road he found the watch. He got on the fast
freight east, some time after, and rode into the city. He had sold the
cuff-links, but on offering the watch to Alex he had been "copped."

The story, with its cold recital of villainy, was done. I hardly knew
if I were more anxious, or less. That it was Halsey, there could be no
doubt. How badly he was hurt, how far he had been carried, were the
questions that demanded immediate answer. But it was the first real
information we had had; my boy had not been murdered outright. But
instead of vague terrors there was now the real fear that he might be
lying in some strange hospital receiving the casual attention commonly
given to the charity cases. Even this, had we known it, would have
been paradise to the terrible truth. I wake yet and feel myself cold
and trembling with the horror of Halsey's situation for three days
after his disappearance.

Mr. Winters and Alex disposed of the tramp with a warning. It was
evident he had told us all he knew. We had occasion, within a day or
two, to be doubly thankful that we had given him his freedom. When Mr.
Jamieson telephoned that night we had news for him; he told me what I
had not realized before--that it would not be possible to find Halsey
at once, even with this clue. The cars by this time, three days, might
be scattered over the Union.

But he said to keep on hoping, that it was the best news we had had.
And in the meantime, c