full minute, after which he opened the package,
taking several documents, returning the rest to the bag. Then after
drawing his cigar case from the bag, he rose and strode rapidly toward
the rear of the car, where the smoking compartment was located.

"So that's the man. I'm glad I know what I do, even though I do not know
what it is all about. I must ask Mr. Stuart about that man," mused
Barbara. Consulting her watch, she found that it was nearly one o'clock
in the morning. The girl shivered, snuggled into her blankets and fell
asleep. It was December and the air was chill. Barbara had not been
asleep long when she was awakened by a violent jolt, then a bumping that
shook her until her teeth chattered. The sleeping car swayed giddily
from side to side as it moved slowly forward with a grinding, crunching
sound. Then the car gave a lurch that hurled Bab violently against her
sister.

Mollie uttered a little cry of alarm. Bab threw her arms about her,
hugging Mollie in a tight embrace to save her sister from being thrown
against the side of the car. As yet Bab had not had time to think of
what was occurring outside. But now she began vaguely to realize that
the Pullman car had left the rails. An accident had occurred. Shouts and
cries of alarm from various parts of the car testified to the terror of
other passengers who were being buffeted about by the rocking sleeper.
All at once the forward end of the car appeared to plunge down head
first, as it were. The two girls were tumbled into one end of their
berth where for a few agonizing seconds both were nearly standing on
their heads.

Mollie screamed again.

"Don't!" commanded Barbara sharply in a half-smothered voice, holding
her sister even more tightly than before.

"We're going over!" cried Mollie.

Barbara had managed to straighten out and was now bracing herself with
all her might. She had thus far made no effort to get out into the
aisle. She was a girl quick to think and act in an emergency. She had
reasoned that they would be safer in their berth than out of it, for
they could not be buffeted about so much in the narrow berth as they
might be in the aisle where they could hear the thud of bags and other
articles falling from the various berths or being hurled from one side
to the other of the car.

The lights suddenly went out. Fortunately the train had not been moving
very fast when the accident occurred. Now it gave a sudden, sickening
lurch and lay ov