eward," the detective interrupted quietly.

By more closely questioning the president of the railroad, Nick learned
that the depredations and robberies committed by Hobo Harry's gang had
been remarkable in their extent and thoroughness; and that every effort
to break up the gang had been in vain.

Whenever one of the yeggmen was arrested and sent to prison, two new
ones, even more proficient in their thievery, seemed ready to spring up
in his place; and so the thing had gone on and on until the people who
had been robbed so often became desperate.

And then it was determined to call Nick Carter into the case.

Of Hobo Harry himself, nothing whatever was known beyond the fact that
there was such a character, and that he was the head and front of the
hobo gang--their chief, to whom absolute and implicit obedience was
accorded. His power over them seemed absolute.

Whether it was because of fear of him, or for love of him, it was,
nevertheless, true that not one of the fraternity of hoboes who had been
arrested could be prevailed upon to betray the master. Neither threats
nor offers of bribery had any effect upon them.

Hobo Harry remained as entirely in the dark as ever; and even in the
cases of the eight men to whom the president of the railroad had
referred as having confessed that each of them was Hobo Harry
himself--they had each seemed to get a queer sort of enjoyment in
posing, even for a time, as their dreaded chief.

As the president explained to Nick, there were many among the detectives
who had been detailed upon the case who insisted that there was no such
person as Hobo Harry. It was their belief that the name was merely a
fictitious one, to which the hoboes, one and all, had agreed to give
obedience.

But the president of the railroad did not believe this; neither did the
detective. The completeness of the organization of the gang was a
sufficient negative to such a statement. To have a perfect organization
there must be a chief; a head; a ruling power.

By investigating the case a little further before actually starting out
upon it, Nick discovered that the yeggmen had carried their depredations
even into whole villages. In one town--Calamont--the place had been
literally gutted in a single night.

The yeggmen had descended upon it in such numbers that the inhabitants
were terrified, and could only protect themselves by barricading their
doors, and remaining with their guns and other weapons in th