good turns, and it wouldn't be fair for me
to turn my back on him," finished Tom Roland. "We are going right
through to San Francisco. How about yourselves?"

"We stop off at New York," said Randy.

"It's a pity we can't travel together--" began Roland, when Earl cut him
short.

"Roland, did you pick up a letter belonging to me?" asked the boy.

The man's eyes dropped, but only for the fraction of a second. "A letter
belonging to you?" he repeated. "No. Where did you lose it?"

"Somewhere around Basco. Did you see it, Guardley?"

The second man shook his head. "Was it important?" he asked.

"Very," said Earl, laconically, and then, as the train began to move
again he motioned to Randy, and the two started back for their seat in
the last car.

"What do you think?" questioned Randy, when they were seated.

"I don't know what to think. It's mighty queer the pair should leave
Basco in such a hurry."

"We left in a hurry. But we had a good reason."

"And they may have--a reason most folks don't look for."

"Do you think they left on account of some crooked work?" cried Randy.

"That would probably be Jasper Guardley's reason for getting away. But
it's not our affair, and we have enough other matters to think of,"
concluded Earl, after a pause. "When we get to New York we'll be like
stray cattle in a hundred-acre lot. We must look out not to get lost,
and above all things not to lose our money."

"And engage the cheapest and quickest passage to San Francisco," said
Randy. "Let us look over those folders before it gets too late. It's too
dark to see much outside."

The lamps were lighted in the car, and they lost no further time in
digesting the contents of the folders of the railroad companies and
pouring over the maps of the various routes to the Golden Gate.

"One looks about as good as another on paper," remarked Earl, at last.
"I think we had best take the New York Central Railroad to Chicago, then
the Rock Island & Chicago to Rock Island, and then the Southern Pacific.
We'll find out about that route when we reach New York."

It was exactly ten o'clock in the evening that the train rolled into the
Grand Central Depot at Forty-second Street and Randy and Earl alighted.
The crowd was very thick, and though both looked for Roland and
Guardley, the two men could not be discovered. The coming and going of
so many people confused them, and the many cries which greeted them as
they emerged on the street did