THE SECOND STRANGER
Mr. Hopkins bustled about the compartment, making everything
comfortable for the Hardy boys and chatting affably.
"You'll be looked after right until you reach Montana," he said. "You
won't have to change trains. There'll be no bother."
"We're very grateful to you--" began Frank.
The little lawyer dismissed their thanks with a gesture.
"It's no trouble at all," he said. "No trouble at all. Your father
would do as much for me any day."
From out on the platform they heard the stentorian cry, "All Aboard!"
Mr. Hopkins glanced at his watch.
"I'll have to go," he said quickly. Then, without waiting to say
good-bye, he dashed out of the compartment, slamming the door behind
him in his haste.
The Hardy boys settled back in the comfortable seats as the train
began to move. They looked out the window as they emerged from the
great train-shed and then they were occupied gazing at the city streets
as the locomotive picked up speed and roared on its way.
In due time the train passed through the outskirts of Chicago, then
it rushed on through open stretches of country, past little towns and
villages. It was an express that evidently stopped only at the larger
cities.
"At this rate it won't take us long to reach Montana," Frank remarked.
"We're sure making good time."
"What do you say to going out and sitting in the observation car for a
while?" Frank suggested. "It's roomier than this compartment."
"Suits me."
Frank went to the door. To his surprise he found that it would not
open. He tried again, but the door refused to budge.
"That's funny," he remarked. "We're locked in."
Both the boys tried the door, but it was of no avail.
"The catch must have been on when Mr. Hopkins went out," Frank said.
Even yet the real truth of the situation had not dawned on them.
They hammered on the door for a while, but no one heard them. At last
Frank caught sight of the bell button.
"That's stupid of me," he said, with a smile. "I should have known
there'd be a bell to call the porter."
He pressed the button and waited. No one came. There was no sound but
the roar of the train as it rushed on its way. He pressed the button
again and again.
"That porter must be either dead or asleep," he muttered, settling down
to a prolonged ringing of the bell.
After what seemed an interminable length of time they heard a shuffling
of feet in the corridor. The sound of the steps ceased, and some one
rapped at the door.
"Something foh you, gemmen?"
"Yes--let us out of here!"
The porter tried the handle of the door.
"By golly," he observed, "you done lock yo'selves in."
"We didn't lock ourselves in. Somebody locked _us_ in. Haven't you got
a key?"
"Jes' a minute."
They heard the porter shuffling away. After a while he returned with
the sleeping car conductor, a key clicked in the lock, and then the
door swung open.
"How on earth did that happen?" asked the conductor, mystified. He
looked at the porter accusingly. "Did you lock these boys in there?"
"No, sah! No, sah!" protested the porter. "Ah didn't have nuffin to do
with it, sah! Dey come on at Chicago wif an older man and I done showed
'em to de compa'tment and dat's all Ah knows about it."
"I don't think the porter had anything to do with our being locked in,"
explained Frank. "It was an accident. Our friend Mr. Hopkins slammed
the door on his way out and the catch must have been on without our
knowing it. It's perfectly all right."
"I got their tickets all right," said the conductor.
"Yes, sah. Ah collected dem tickets mahself. De old gen'man wif dese
boys give 'em to me. Two tickets to Indianapolis, sah."
"To where?" asked Frank, in amazement.
"Indianapolis."
"But we're not going to Indianapolis."
"Dat's where yoh tickets reads to."
The Hardy boys looked at one another in consternation.
"But we're going to Montana. Didn't Mr. Hopkins give you tickets to
Lucky Bottom, Montana?"
The conductor produced some tickets from his pocket and glanced through
them. "Even if he did," he remarked, "they wouldn't be any use on this
train. We're bound south, not west. No," he concluded, "your tickets
are here, Compartment B, and they read Indianapolis."
"We've been tricked!" declared Frank hotly. "Mr. Hopkins said he had
been sent to look after us and that this train would take us right
through to Montana."
"And then he locked the door on you so you wouldn't go around making
inquiries until it was too late," added the conductor. "Your friend
certainly put one over on you. But I'm afraid we can't do much for you
now. We're quite a distance out of Chicago, and this train doesn't stop
for another hour yet."
"Another hour!"
"That's the best we can do."
"Well," said Frank, disgusted, "I guess we'll just have to wait and get
off at the first stop, and then take the next train back to Chicago.
This will hold us up another day on our trip."
"Sorry," said the conductor sympathetically. "Of course it isn't our
fault. We couldn't know you were supposed to be going West."
"No, of course not. It was Hopkins. He planned the whole thing from the
start. Oh, well!" Frank shrugged. "We might as well wait."
He and Joe went back into the compartment and sat down again. This
unexpected development left them silent and discouraged. Too late now,
they saw that the astute Hopkins had deliberately sought to prevent
them from joining their father in Montana. He had worked the trick very
neatly, and it might easily have happened that the boys would not have
discovered the deception until they reached Indianapolis had it not
been for the chance remark of the porter. For that, at least, they were
thankful.
"Dad's enemies mustn't be very anxious to have us reach Montana, if
they'll go to these lengths to sidetrack us," said Joe, at last.
"We'll get there if we have to walk," Frank replied grimly.
They had no further enjoyment of the scenery. Each flitting telegraph
pole meant that they were drawing farther away from Chicago and losing
so much more time in resuming their journey to the West. At length the
train began to slow down and, looking out, they saw that they were
approaching a small railway town with an immense water tank.
The porter came to the door of the compartment.
"Heah's de fust stop," he told them. "You kin git a train back to
Chicago fum heah!"
He took their luggage and, when the train came to a stop, the boys got
out onto the platform.
"Now I wonder how long we'll have to wait before we get a train back,"
remarked Frank.
His eye caught a bulletin board in front of the little station and he
went over to it. At length he found what he sought, a late train bound
for Chicago, and he almost groaned as he noted the time.
"There won't be a train along for five hours," he reported to Joe.
"Good-night!"
"That means we've got to cool our heels around here until dark. Five
solid hours."
Dolefully, they confronted the bulletin board. A young man in a heavy
ulster and tweed cap was also studying it. He glanced toward them.
"What's the trouble?" he asked.
"Isn't there any earlier train to Chicago than that?"
The young man shook his head.
"I'm afraid not," he said. "I guess you're out of luck. In a hurry to
get there?"
Frank nodded.
"That's too bad. But say--," the young man reflected a moment. "If you
motored over to Greendale you'd be able to catch an earlier train.
There's another railroad passes through there."
"If we can catch an earlier train, that's the train we want," said
Frank decidedly. "How far away is Greendale and how do we get there?"
"It's about twenty miles across country. I'm motoring over there myself
right now. You're welcome to come along with me if you wish. I'm just
waiting until the line is clear so I can put through a telephone call."
"Do you think we can make the train at Greendale all right?"
"Oh, yes. I'm sure of it. There's a train leaves for Chicago in about
an hour and we'll be there in plenty of time. There's my car beside the
platform. Put your grips in it and I'll be along in a few minutes."
The young man went into the waiting room and the Hardy boys saw him
go into a telephone booth to put through his call. Frank and Joe,
congratulating themselves on this lucky turn of events that had saved
them from a dreary five-hour wait, went over to the touring car the
young man had indicated and put their grips in the back seat. In about
five minutes their new-found friend emerged from the waiting room.
"All set?" he asked. "I made inquiries about your train and you'll be
able to make it all right. Hop in."
He insisted that they sit in the front seat with him, as there was
plenty of room. "I like company when I'm driving," he said cheerfully,
and this removed the last vestige of reluctance in the Hardy boys'
minds, as they had been slightly afraid that they might be proving
themselves bothersome to the stranger.
He was a skilful driver and the roads were good. The big touring car
sped along the highway and they left the village behind, racing out
into the open country. The young man at the wheel said little, beyond
an occasional remark about the weather or the condition of the roads.
Not until they were at least ten miles from the town did the boys have
a suspicion that anything might be wrong. That was when the young man
turned the car suddenly off the main highway down a lonely road. The
car lurched heavily to and fro in the deep ruts.
"I thought you said the other town was on the main highway," said Frank.
"I know the way," retorted the man at the wheel gruffly.
Something in his tone made the Hardy boys suspicious. Frank glanced at
his brother and he could tell by his expression that Joe did not like
the situation either.
Some distance ahead they saw an object parked directly across the road.
It was an automobile, and it effectually blocked their passage.
"Somebody wrecked, I guess," said their driver carelessly. He began to
slow down. Frank, who was on the outside of the seat, groped under the
flap in the door until his fingers encountered a heavy wrench. He was
not going to be caught altogether unprepared.
The car came to a stop. From around the front of the other automobile
came three unsavory individuals, unshaven, with peaked caps pulled low
over their foreheads.
"Now," said the young man beside them, suddenly whipping out a pistol,
"you'll just come along with us."
He leveled the weapon directly at the Hardy boys.