I. BOB SOLVES ANOTHER MYSTERY 164
XVII. A LONG-REMEMBERED CHRISTMAS 178
XVIII. BAB'S EXCITING DISCOVERY 187
XIX. A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT 195
XX. CONCLUSION 204

The Automobile Girls at Chicago

CHAPTER I

THE MAN IN SECTION THIRTEEN

BARBARA THURSTON awakened with a violent start.

"Wha--a-at is it?" she muttered, then opened her eyes wide. In the
darkness of the Pullman berth she could see nothing at all save a faint
perpendicular line of light at the edges of the curtains that enclosed
the section.

"I--I wonder what made me wake up so suddenly?" Barbara put out a
groping hand. The hand came in contact with Mollie Thurston's face.
Mollie brushed it away, muttering irritably in her sleep. Then all at
once Barbara discovered what had awakened her. Close at hand she heard
the voices of two men. They were conversing in low, cautious tones.

"I tell you I'll crush him! I'll crush them both. I'll make beggars of
them!" declared one of the men in a slightly heightened tone.

The train had stopped, as Barbara realized at that moment. Otherwise she
might not have been able to hear the words so plainly. The girl
shuddered at the tone of the speaker's voice more than at the words
themselves. She drew the curtains aside a little and peered out. It was
then that she discovered by the light reflected from the adjoining
section that the berths next to her had not been made up. Two men were
sitting in the double seat within a few inches of where her head had
lain. She was unable to see the men, nor did Barbara recognize either of
the voices. Their conversation could be of no possible interest to her,
she told herself. Still for some reason that she did not stop to
analyze, the girl lay back with half-closed eyes, listening. She
listened not because she wanted to hear, but for the reason that she
could not well help overhearing the conversation in the adjoining
section.

At Barbara's side Mollie Thurston lay sleeping peacefully. As for
Barbara, she was now wholly awake, all thought of sleep having left her.

"You mean you will crush them financially?" suggested the second
speaker.

"Body and soul!"

"Do you mean to say that you would crush a human being--perhaps drive
him to do desperate things--merely to gratify your love of money and
power? Is that what you mean, Nat?"

"That is partly my meaning. Yes, I want power. Already they call m