Frank Merriwell's New Comedian Part 41

Bart shook his head.

"Something tells me it is the same woman," he persisted.

"But why should she be on this train?"

"Who can answer that? Why did she try such a trick on the street?"

"Don't know," admitted Merry. "Once I thought it might be that she was mashed on me, but it didn't prove that way."

"Oh, I dunno," drawled Gallup, with a queer grin. "Yeou turned her daown, an' that made her sore. Ef she'd bin mashed on ye, perhaps she'd done jest as she did to git revenge fer bein' turned daown."

"No, something tells me this was more than a simple case of mash," said Frank.

"What do you make of it?" asked Havener.

"An attempt to bother me."

"For what?"

"Who knows? Haven't I had enough troubles?"

"I should say so! But I thought your troubles of this sort were over when you got rid of Lawrence. You left two of the a.s.sistants who saw him try to fire the theater to appear as witnesses against him."

"Oh, I hardly think Lawrence was in this affair in any way or manner. I confess I do not know just what to make of it. Heretofore my enemies have been men, but now there seems to be a woman in the case."

"If this woman follows you, what will you do?"

"I shall endeavor to find out who she is, and bring her to time, so she will drop the game."

"See that you do," advised Hodge. "And don't be soft with her because she is a woman."

"Go look through the train and see if you can find the woman you saw,"

directed Frank. "If you find her, come back here and tell me where she is."

"I'll do it!" exclaimed Bart, getting up at once.

"That fellow is faithful to you," said Havener, when Bart had walked down the aisle; "but he is awfully disagreeable at times. It's nothing but his loyalty that makes me take any stock in him."

"His heart is in the right place," a.s.serted Merry.

"Nothing makes him doubt you. Why, I believe he wanted to fight the whole company when you failed to appear."

"An' he's a fighter, b'gosh! when he gits started," declared Gallup.

"I've seen him plunk some critters an' he plunked them in great style."

Hodge was gone some little time, but there was a grim look of triumph when he returned.

"Find her?" asked Merry.

"Sure," nodded Bart.

"Where?"

"Last car. She did not get onto this one, but I rather think she moved after you came on board. That makes me all the more certain that it is the woman. She's near the rear end of the car, on the left side, as you go down the aisle."

"Well," said Frank, rising, "I think I'll go take a look at her. Is she alone?"

"Yes."

"That's good. And she cannot escape from the train till it stops, if it should happen to be the right woman, which I hope it is."

Bart wished to accompany Frank to point the woman out, but Merry objected.

"No," he said, "let me go alone."

"I can show her to you."

"If the woman I am looking for is in the car I'll find her."

Merry pa.s.sed slowly through the train, scanning each pa.s.senger as he went along. He entered the last car. In a few moments he would know if the mysterious veiled woman really were on that train. If he found her, he would be certain the strange encounter on the street had a meaning that had not appeared on the surface.

The train was flying along swiftly, taking curves without seeming to slacken speed in the least. Frank's progress through the car was rather slow, as the swaying motion made it difficult for him to get along.

But when he had reached the rear of the car he was filled with disappointment.

Not a sign of a veiled woman had he seen in the car.

More than that, there was no woman in black who resembled the woman who had stopped him on the street in Denver.

Could it be Hodge had been mistaken?

No! Something told him Bart had made no mistake in the matter of seeing a woman who answered the description given by Frank. He had said she was in the last car. She was not there when Frank pa.s.sed through the car.

Then she had moved.

Why?

Was the woman aware that she was being watched? Had she moved to escape observation?

Frank stopped by the door at the rear end of the car. He looked out through the gla.s.s in the door.

Some one was on the platform at one side of the door. Frank opened the door and looked out.

The person on the platform was a woman in black, and she wore a veil!

CHAPTER XIX.