dangerous than a man would be in her
position."

"I don't know about that. But she is dangerous enough without argument
about it."

"Exactly. We want her caught. And we want you to catch her."

"I imagine that this time, Mr. Cobalt, it will be rather a harder task
than it was before."

"Why so?"

"She will be very much more on her guard now than then. And, besides,
she knows enough about me to know that now I will most certainly hunt
her down."

The railway president was thoughtful a moment, and then he said:

"You see, Carter, the very manner of her escape is a menace to us."

"How is that?" asked the detective. "The first and, therefore, the only
information I have had on the subject was that contained in your
message, which told me merely that she had escaped. What is there that
is particularly interesting about the manner of her escape?"

"Then you have not heard about it, eh?"

"I have just informed you that I have heard nothing."

"Well, to say the least, her escape was characteristic. Her hoboes did
it for her."

Nick raised his brows.

"You don't say so!" he exclaimed. "Well, we might have expected
something like that, I suppose. I regarded it as a little bit
unfortunate that the arrest was made in the county where it was, for
that compelled us to put her temporarily in the Calamont jail--and I
thought at the time that the Calamont jail was a trifle close to her
stamping ground. Now, suppose you tell me exactly what happened."

"You know Calamont, of course?" asked the railway president, and the
detective smiled broadly.

"I know very little about it," he said, "with the exception that I
assisted in the robbing of a bank that is located there."

It was the president's turn to smile.

"That was a queer experience for you, Carter, wasn't it? But the
president of that bank is quite willing that you should rob it again on
the same terms. You know we fixed him all up again, and my company
promises to keep a large deposit there now. Altogether, they regard your
descent upon the bank as a very fortunate experience for them."

"No doubt. Now about that escape."

"Calamont is a village of about three thousand inhabitants. That bank,
for instance, is the only one there."

"What has that----"

"Wait a moment. Calamont has suffered a great deal from the depredations
of the hoboes, and now has a force of special constables, whose duties
consist in arresting and taking to jail every tramp who cross