e loud snores of the sleeping citizens.

Once there came a loud cry of a person frightened by some dream, just
where the Mexican was passing and he stopped, crouching low in the
aisle. Then as nothing further came of it, he glided along until he
reached section No. 9, where James Darlington lay asleep.

CHAPTER VII

WHERE WAS HE?

Jim was breathing heavily, profoundly asleep, and the fellow's first
action was to rifle Jim's valise with the skill of an old hand, taking
every scrap of paper he could find, a few letters and a memorandum book;
these he glanced through; they were not what he wanted, at least the
paper that he had been told to bring was not there.

As he shoved the valise under the berth he heard the conductor coming
back on his return trip, and he remained as quiet as a frozen mummy,
leaning far into the berth and behind the curtain, as the conductor
brushed past him. Then he proceeded to the dangerous part of his task.
Jim's coat lay under his head, a precaution he never neglected.

With his knife in his teeth, better than a revolver for close work and
entirely noiseless, the fellow began slowly and with great cunning to
work his hand into the pockets of the coat. He found a long flat letter;
this was what he was told to get. Now his cupidity was aroused. He had
found nothing of pecuniary value, and he knew that this young fellow
carried some treasures of value in the way of jewels.

Jim was too old a campaigner to put these even in the coat on which he
was asleep. The spy knew that they must be in a belt around the boy's
body. Carefully he located it, and now the lust of theft as strong as
that of the Italian for blood gripped him. He despised all risk though
he did not lose his craft or caution; he cut the leather belt at Jim's
back, and began to draw it by minute particles towards him.

Then Jim was aroused and was wide awake in an instant. He knew that he
had been robbed and grabbed for the fellow who slipped away as though he
had been quicksilver and when Jim who became entangled in the bed
clothes got to the door of the sleeper it was locked. Perhaps he has
gone the other way, thought Jim, and he rushed to the other end of the
car; the door there was likewise locked.

Jim hated to raise a hue and cry, but he was determined to get the
thief. The loss of the belt which contained many of the jewels which he
had brought from Mexico was a severe jolt. It would cripple him cruelly
in his p