r own boats on the Hudson; so, if they
had been seen to land from the Greyhound, no notice was taken of the
circumstance. They were not likely to be molested, except by their own
guilty consciences. They walked directly to the railroad station, and
ascertained that the train would leave in half an hour. Fanny, anxious
to conciliate her associate, and accustom her to her new situation,
invited her to a saloon, where they partook of ice-creams; but partial
as Kate was to this luxury, it did not taste good, and seemed to be
entirely different from any ice-cream she had ever eaten before.

When it was nearly time for the train to arrive, Fanny bought two
tickets, and they joined the crowd that was waiting for the cars. Kate
seemed to be so fully reconciled to the enterprise, that her friend did
not doubt her any longer; she had no suspicion of her intended
defection.

"I am almost choked," said Kate, when the whistle of the locomotive was
heard in the distance. "I must have a drink of water."

"You have no time."

"I won't be gone but a second," replied Kate.

"I will wait here--but be quick."

Kate went into the station-house, and passing out at the door on the
other side, ran off towards the river as fast as her legs would carry
her. She reached the outskirts of the village before she slackened her
pace, and then, exhausted and out of breath with running, she paused to
ascertain if Fanny was in pursuit of her. No one was to be seen in the
direction from which she had come, and taking courage from her success,
she walked leisurely towards the place where the Greyhound had been
left.

The man she had passed on her way down was still at work on his boat,
and Kate, telling him such a story as suited her purpose, engaged him
to sail the Greyhound up to Woodville. They embarked without any
interruption from Fanny, and in a couple of hours she was landed at the
pier from which she had started. Kate paid her boatman three dollars
from the money which Fanny had given her, and then walked up to the
mansion.

She told Mrs. Green the whole truth, and gave her the eighteen dollars
remaining in her possession. She then went home to make peace with her
mother, to whom also she told the whole story, blaming Fanny for
everything except her own truancy, and pleading that she had been led
away in this respect.

Mr. Long was still engaged in the search for Fanny, though the loss of
the money in the closet had not been discovered