could find, shook his head.

"I know there was. I had forgotten all about it," declared Bab. "I heard
someone groan in there as I passed the compartment with my friend. Where
is the man who occupied the lower berth of section thirteen?"

No one had seen him. All the other passengers had been accounted for,
but no one had seen the tall, slim, sandy-haired man from section number
thirteen.

"Then he is in that smoking compartment. I saw him when he went there.
The compartment was on fire when I passed it," cried Barbara Thurston,
springing up, her face flushed, her eyes large and troubled.

"If there's anyone there the men will find him. There was no fire in
that car," said the conductor, with which statement the porter agreed.

"There was smoke," declared Bab. "I don't know about fire. I do know
that I'm going back to find out about that man," she announced.

"Come back," called the conductor. "We're going to start."

Unheeding, Barbara ran for the door, and, leaping from the platform,
started on a run back to the wrecked sleeper. The conductor was
determined to move his train, but the passengers objected so strenuously
that he reluctantly decided to wait and make a further hurried search of
the wrecked sleeper.

With a porter and half a dozen passengers the conductor followed
Barbara. She could smell the smoke before she reached the car. Hastily
climbing to the platform, she crawled in. By the time she had gotten
into the corridor a porter had also climbed up. The smoke was so thick
and suffocating that the girl choked and coughed.

"He's here," she cried, as a faint groan reached her ears. "Hurry! Oh,
do hurry!" Then Bab's words were lost in the fit of coughing that had
seized her.

Three men pushed their way into the smoking compartment. They saw that
the carpet was smouldering. It had probably been set on fire by a
burning cigar or a lighted match. There was no blaze, just a dull
smoulder and a lot of smoke. It did not seem possible that one could
live in that atmosphere for very long.

Suddenly the porter stumbled over the form of a man. It was the former
occupant of section number thirteen.

"Young woman, get out of here at once," commanded the conductor. "We
will take care of this man."

Bab staggered out to the platform, where she waited. A minute later the
men came out bearing the unconscious form of the stranger. Barbara asked
if he were dead. The men said no, but that he was half suffocated from