member what sort of men fetched them away. Maybe I was busy at
the time, and my mate gave them out. However, I will look first and see
when they went. What day do you say they got here?"

"They came by the train that left Richmond at six o'clock on the morning
of the 20th."

"Then they got in late that night or early next morning. Ah, the train
was on time that day, and got in at half-past nine at night. Here they
are--three boxes and a bag, numbered 15,020, went out on the 28th. Yes,
that's right enough. Now I will just ask my mate if he remembers about
their going out."

The other man was called. Oh, yes! he remembered quite well the three
boxes standing in the corner. They went out some time in the afternoon.
It was just after the train came in from Richmond. He noticed the man
that asked for them. He got him to help carry out the boxes and put them
into a cart. Yes, he remembered there was another man with him, and a
negress with a child. He wondered at the time what they were up to, but
supposed it was all right. Yes, he didn't mind trying to find out who
had hired out a cart for the job. Dare say he could find out by
to-morrow--at any rate he would try. Five dollars was worth earning,
anyway.

Having put the matter in train, Vincent, leaving Dan at Florence, went
down at once to Charleston. Here, after twenty-four hours' delay, he
obtained a warrant for the arrest of Jonas Pearson and others on the
charge of kidnaping, and then returned to Florence. He found that the
railway man had failed in obtaining any information as to the cart, and
concluded it must have come in from the country on purpose to meet the
train.

"At any rate," Vincent said, "it must be within a pretty limited range
of country. The railway makes a bend from Wilmington to this place and
then down to Charleston, so this is really the nearest station to only a
small extent of country."

"That's so," the railway man said. He had heard from Dan a good deal
about the case, and had got thoroughly interested in it. "Either Marion
or Kingstree would be nearer, one way or the other, to most of the
swamp country. So it can't be as far as Conwayborough on the north, or
Georgetown on the south, and it must lie somewhere between Jeffries'
Creek and Lynch's Creek; anyhow it would be in Marion County--that's
pretty nigh sure. So, if I were you, I would take rail back to Marion
Courthouse, and see the sheriff there and have a talk over the matter
with hi