and went to the hall door with them.

"Get their tickets and see them aboard the train. Speak to the conductor
about them, Samuel," she said to the under gardener.

"Indeed I will, Madame," replied the good fellow.

As they rattled down to the lodge gates, the door of the little cottage
opened and Jessie Pease hurried out in her night wrapper.

"Wait! Wait, Samuel!" she called, and held up a little basket. "You'll
be hungry on the train, girls. Some chicken sandwiches, and olives, and
odds and ends that I managed to pick up after the Madame telephoned to
me about your trouble.

"I hope it isn't so bad as it looks, Nancy. And take care of her,
Janie--that's a good lassie!"

"Oh! aren't folks just _good_!" exclaimed Nancy to her chum, as Samuel
drove on. "It just seems as though they _do_ like me a little."

"Huh! everybody's crazy about you, Nance! You ought to know that,"
returned Jennie. "I don't see what a girl who's made so many friends
needs of a family--or of money, either. Don't worry."

But Nancy wiped a few tears away. Never before had she appreciated the
fact that here at Pinewood Hall she had made many dear and loving
friends. "Miss Nobody from Nowhere" was just as important as anybody
else in the whole school.

Samuel drove almost recklessly through the streets of Clintondale in
order to make the night train that stopped but a moment at the station.
They were in good season, however, and the man put them, with their bags
and the basket, aboard.

It would not have paid to engage sleeping berths at that hour. The two
girls had comfortable seats, and of course, were too excited to wish to
sleep. Jennie proceeded to open the lunch basket at once, however.

"No knowing when we'll get a chance to eat again," declared Nancy's
lively chum, who was enjoying to the full the opening of this strange
campaign.

What should they first do when they reached the city? Would the hotel be
open so early in the morning? Would Scorch be at the station to meet
them?

And this question brought Nancy to another thought. Scorch had not been
communicated with.

So she wrote a reply to his message, saying that she and Jennie, were
coming to Cincinnati and were then on the train, and had the brakeman
file it for sending at the first station beyond Clintondale at which the
train stopped.

She addressed it to Scorch O'Brien's home, believing that it might reach
him more quickly in that way. She did not suppose that the r