"Smoking-room?" gasped Daphne. "Why--why I'd forgotten all about _that_! The--the kiss, I mean----" her eyes were wide [85] with horror, "the kiss, I mean----" White as a ghost suddenly she lifted to her father's eyes the filmy hem of her gown where in two faint crimson splashes across one corner a man had stenciled the bow of his lips with his own life-blood. "The _deuce_!" cried her father, and jumping into his wrapper rang precipitously for the porter. "The young man who was--who was sick last night the one that had the hemorrhage--what about him?" he demanded of the first white-coated Darky who came running. "Is--is he dead?" whispered Daphne. "The young man what had the hemorrhage," confided the Darky, "he done gone leap from the train." "What?" cried Jaffrey Bretton. Enraptured by the excitement the Darky ripped his somber face in a white grin from ear to ear. "He sure did, Sah!" he attested genially. "Back thar jes' as we was leavin' the water tank it was! More'n an hour back I reckon!" With a sudden elongation of his grin that threatened to separate the whole upper part [86] of his face from the lower he rallied himself for his real news. "Was you by any chance, sah," he grinned, "the gentleman what owned the cat-hound in the baggage car?" "Cat-hound?" flared Jaffrey Bretton. "I've got a thousand-dollar slate-colored hound in the baggage car if that's what you mean?" "You ain't done got him now," regretted the Darky. "It was him that jumps off first at the water tank. The cat was yeller. One of them sort of swamp cats that----" With a cry of real dismay Jaffrey Bretton pushed the Darky aside and started for the door. "'Twon't do you no good now, sah," protested the Darky. "It was more'n an hour ago I reckon and the Captain of this 'ere train he don't stop nothing for no dog." "No, of course not!" cried Jaffrey Bretton, "But we've got to do something! The swamp country----" "Yes, sah, that's the trouble with these 'ere hound-dogs," reflected the Darky. "They runs till they busts. And when they busts they bogs down. And jes' as soon as they bogs [87] down Mr. Alligator or Mr. Little Ole Mocassin snake he----It was when the young gentleman sees the swamp that he jumps. Tell the folks not to worry, he hollers. Tell 'em this little ole good works 'speriment am only just begun! Was _you_ his folks?" brightened the Darky. "No!" flared Daphne. "Yes!" said Jaffrey Bretton. "Go get me a telegraph blank quick!" he ordered. "Find out what the last station back was! And the next one ahead!" Expeditiously the Darky plunged through the door, then swung back for one more sentence. "There was some gentlemens down here las' year what lost their hound-dog. Jes' two hours it was and when they foun' him he was all buzzard-et." "Hush your mouth!" said Jaffrey Bretton. "But, Old-Dad," shivered Daphne, "what about the--the man?"