The Treasure-Train | Page 5

with forty armed guards!"
"I know it," she said, anxiously, "and I am so afraid something is going
to happen--ever since I had to play the spy. But what could any one
want with a yacht?"
Kennedy shrugged his shoulders non-committally.
"It is one of the things that Mr. Lane must guard against," he remarked,
simply. She looked up quickly.
"Mr. Lane?" she repeated.
"Yes," replied Kennedy; "the protection of the train has fallen on him. I
shall meet the train myself when it gets to Worcester and come in on it.
I don't think there can be any danger before it reaches that point."
"Will Mr. Lane go with you?"
"He must," decided Kennedy. "That train must be delivered safely here

in this city."
Maude Euston gave Craig one of her penetrating, direct looks.
"You think there is danger, then?"
"I cannot say," he replied.
"Then I am going with you!" she exclaimed.
Kennedy paused and met her eyes. I do not know whether he read what
was back of her sudden decision. At least I could not, unless there was
something about Rodman Lane which she wished to have cleared up.
Kennedy seemed to read her character and know that a girl like Maude
Euston would be a help in any emergency.
"Very well," he agreed; "meet us at Mr. Lane's office in half an hour.
Walter, see whether you can find Whiting."
Whiting was one of Kennedy's students with whom he had been lately
conducting some experiments. I hurried out and managed to locate him.
"What is it you suspect?" I asked, when we returned. "A wreck-- some
spectacular stroke at the nations that are shipping the gold?"
"Perhaps," he replied, absently, as he and Whiting hurriedly assembled
some parts of instruments that were on a table in an adjoining room.
"Perhaps?" I repeated. "What else might there be?"
"Robbery."
"Robbery!" I exclaimed. "Of twenty million dollars? Why, man, just
consider the mere weight of the metal!"
"That's all very well," he replied, warming up a bit as he saw that
Whiting was getting things together quickly. "But it needs only a bit of
twenty millions to make a snug fortune--" He paused and straightened
up as the gathering of the peculiar electrical apparatus, whatever it was,

was completed. "And," he went on quickly, "consider the effect on the
stock-market of the news. That's the big thing."
I could only gasp.
"A modern train-robbery, planned in the heart of dense traffic!"
"Why not?" he queried. "Nothing is impossible if you can only take the
other fellow unawares. Our job is not to be taken unawares. Are you
ready, Whiting?"
"Yes, sir," replied the student, shouldering the apparatus, for which I
was very thankful, for my arms had frequently ached carrying about
some of Kennedy's weird but often weighty apparatus.
We piled into a taxicab and made a quick journey to the office of the
Continental Express. Maude Euston had already preceded us, and we
found her standing by Lane's desk as he paced the floor.
"Please, Miss Euston, don't go," he was saying as we entered.
"But I want to go," she persisted, more than ever determined,
apparently.
"I have engaged Professor Kennedy just for the purpose of foreseeing
what new attack can be made on us," he said.
"You have engaged Professor Kennedy?" she asked. "I think I have a
prior claim there, haven't I?" she appealed.
Kennedy stood for a moment looking from one to the other. What was
there in the motives that actuated them? Was it fear, hate, love,
jealousy?
"I can serve my two clients only if they yield to me," Craig remarked,
quietly. "Don't set that down, Whiting. Which is it--yes or no?"
Neither Lane nor Miss Euston looked at each other for a moment.

"Is it in my hands?" repeated Craig.
"Yes," bit off Lane, sourly.
"And you, Miss Euston?"
"Of course," she answered.
"Then we all go," decided Craig. "Lane, may I install this thing in your
telegraph-room outside?"
"Anything you say," Lane returned, unmollified.
Whiting set to work immediately, while Kennedy gave him the final
instructions.
Neither Lane nor Miss Euston spoke a word, even when I left the room
for a moment, fearing that three was a crowd. I could not help
wondering whether she might not have heard something more from the
woman in the tea-room conversation than she had told us. If she had,
she had been more frank with Lane than with us. She must have told
him. Certainly she had not told us. It was the only way I could account
for the armed truce that seemed to exist as, hour after hour, our train
carried us nearer the point where we were to meet the treasure-train.
At Worcester we had still a long wait for