The young federal agent turned and re-entered the car and the feeling of unrest which had gripped him ever since meeting Joe Hamsa deepened. There was something about the diamond salesman that sent shivers up and down Bob’s spine. “That fellow’s got to be on the train some place for we haven’t even slowed up since we left Atkinson,” said the train conductor. “We’d better look again.” They started forward, once more examining every compartment aboard the train, and this time they even went into the baggage car, but the baggageman insisted that no one had been through his car. Back in the first day coach they stopped to take council. “I’m afraid he’s fallen off the train in some manner,” said the train conductor. “We’re stopping in ten minutes at a junction and I’ll send a wire back to division headquarters. They’ll warn all trains over the road to watch for him.” Bob, however, doubted that Hamsa had fallen from the train for he felt that the diamond salesman was far too clever and cautious to be the victim of such an accident. Chapter IX BOB GETS A WARNING ★ The young federal agent returned to car 43 and related in detail to Tully the result of the search of the train. “It doesn’t seem possible that Hamsa could be on the train, yet I am sure that he did not fall off,” concluded Bob. “I’ve the same feeling,” said Tully. “You’re sure you didn’t miss any place?” “We looked in every closet and compartment aboard the Limited,” insisted Bob. “We’d have found even a fly if one had been aboard.” Tully was visibly downcast for he felt the loss of his confidential instructions keenly. “Hamsa is the only one who could have taken them,” he said, half to himself. Bob felt like telling Tully that he should have known better than to have opened and read them in the presence of anyone else, but he checked the impulse, and was glad that he had had the foresight to protect his own papers by placing them in his Gladstone bag. The train slowed to a stop at a lonely junction and Bob went to the vestibule where the porter opened the upper half of the door for him. The federal agent, peering ahead through the rain, saw the train conductor make a dash for the station where a night operator was on duty. The conductor ran back to the train just before the engineer “whistled in” the flagman and Bob knew that already a message was humming over the wires telling of the disappearance of Joe Hamsa, the diamond salesman. The porter closed the upper half of the door and Bob returned to the Pullman. The lights had been turned low and he looked in at Tully, who was dozing. Bob was too wide awake to think of sleep just then, and he went ahead to the smoking compartment, where the porter had left an evening paper.