m the ordinary disappointments of life, he had never, or so
it seemed to him, felt more thoroughly depressed or weary of the work
which had given him occupation for more years than he liked to number,
than in the few minutes of solitary waiting, with his face toward the
river and the sense of some impending doom settling slowly over his aged
heart.

But he was still too much the successful detective to allow his
disheartenment to be seen by his admiring subordinate. As the latter
approached, the old man's countenance brightened, and nothing could
have been more deceptive than the calmness he displayed when the fellow
reported that he had just been talking to a man who had recognized the
boat and the oarsman. It was the same boat and the same oarsman that had
brought them over earlier in the day. He had made an extra trip at this
most unusual hour, for the express purpose of taking this woman back.

"I suppose there is no possibility of your drumming up anyone to row us
over in time to catch them?"

"None in the least. I have inquired."

"Then follow me into the station. I have a few messages to send."

Among these messages was a peremptory one to Sweetwater.

Morning! and an early crossing to the other side. Here a surprise awaited
them. They found, on inquiry, that the man responsible for Madame's
flitting was not, as they had supposed, the hotel proprietor, but Phil
himself, the good-natured, easily-imposed-upon ferryman, on whose
sympathies she had worked during their first short passage from one shore
to the other. Perhaps a little money had helped to deepen this
impression; one never knows.

But this was not all. The woman was gone. She had fled the town on foot
before they were able to locate Phil, who had not made shore at his usual
place but at some point up the river about which they knew nothing. When
he finally showed up, it was almost daybreak.

"Where is he now?"

"At home, or ought to be."

"Show me the house."

In ten minutes the two were face to face.

The result was not altogether satisfactory to the detective. Though he
used all his skill in his manipulation of this kind-hearted ferryman, he
got very little from him but the plain fact that the woman insisted upon
taking to the road when she heard that the train-service had stopped;
that he could not persuade her to wait till daylight or to listen for a
moment to what he had to say of the danger and terrors awaiting her in
the darkness, a