“And Mrs. Hopkins?” Ralph interrupted. “What does she think?”
“They don’t dare tell her. Anyway, Mrs. Hopkins isn’t here. They took her last evening to Dr. Poole’s sanitarium. She’s going under an operation. Miss Cherry was coming back to be with her.”
“That’s tough,” muttered Ralph, turning away.
He went home feeling much disturbed. Mrs. Fairbanks had not only obtained some news of the wreck at Shadow Valley, but she had got a garbled account of Supervisor Hopkins’ family troubles.
“They have taken that poor woman to the sanitarium, and they say he won’t let the girl come home to her mother,” Ralph’s mother said, quite excitedly. “Somebody ought to talk to that Barton Hopkins.”
“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.”