“Hold on! Hold on!” advised her son. “This is one time when that ‘little bird’ of yours has got the news wrong. I positively know that Mr. Hopkins sent for Cherry to return. She left Shelby Junction last night on the ten-forty train—Number Thirty-three.” “Why, Ralph, that was the train that was wrecked!” “Yes, Mother,” the young fellow replied with more gravity. “And, believe me, I’m worried enough. The Flyer was held up two hours and more by the wreck of Thirty-three. I got a chance to search for Cherry. She wasn’t there. She’s lost—disappeared.” “Disappeared?” his mother cried, in amazement. “Yes. She was aboard the train. The conductor remembered her. Ladies told me they saw her after the train was derailed. She was all right then. But she was not to be found when I inquired, and she did not reach Rockton with the other passengers.” “This is awful, Ralph! What does Mr. Hopkins say?” “I don’t know. I’m sure I don’t want to see him. But Mr. Adair has gone over to Shadow Valley, and perhaps he has gone to look for Cherry. My gracious! I’d like to go myself. If I hadn’t promised the G. M. that I would stick to the Midnight Flyer, I would be tempted right now to throw up my job and join any search party that may look for Cherry.” “Are you afraid the strikers have something to do with her disappearance, Ralph?” asked his mother. “I’m afraid of what that Andy McCarrey might do. I have said from the start that this was a personal fight between McCarrey and the super. And Hopkins can be hurt, and hurt badly, through Cherry.” “And his poor wife ill as she is, too! It is dreadful,” repeated Mrs. Fairbanks. “I do wish you could help look for her, my boy; although I wouldn’t want you to get into any trouble.” “Oh, that would be all right. I am not afraid of trouble. But I can’t go back on the G. M. He is my best friend.” His mother was thinking deeply. “Ralph, my boy,” she said, of a sudden, “isn’t it true that Zeph disappeared down there in Shadow Valley?” “That’s true enough, Mother. But Zeph is a different person. He can take care of himself. He is not a delicate girl, helpless in the hands of such villains as Andy McCarrey and his associates. Cherry——” “I was just thinking,” said the widow, “that Zeph might have been captured and imprisoned by the same men and in the same place as the supervisor’s girl. Isn’t it possible?” “Humph! That’s an idea! I had forgotten Zeph since Cherry disappeared. But it might be. Indeed, it is more than likely so. Now I wonder just where Andy McCarrey is right now? That man they tell of in the flour-sack mask could not be him. But, then——” He was more than puzzled and disturbed. Ralph was downright frightened on account of Cherry Hopkins. And now he began to wonder if he ought not to take Mr. Hopkins into his confidence. Although it seemed that the supervisor must know as much about the disappearance of his daughter as Ralph did.