Before night Jesper, the editor of the local paper, hunted him up and asked for particulars concerning his encounter with Riddle. Frank made the account very ludicrous, and Jesper promised to put it in the paper in such a manner that it would make Merriwell appear to advantage.
Then Frank had a hustle to catch a train—and missed it!
This filled him with dismay, for he had spent a day in Salacia when he should have been in Dundee.
He found there were no other trains over that road that would take him to Dundee that night, but there was a train over another road some ten miles away that might be flagged at a little village, and that would carry him to the place he wished to reach.
Immediately Frank made a rush for the nearest livery stable.
“I want to hire a good horse,” he said.
“What for?” asked the hostler, shortly.
“To take me to Kilmerville in time to catch the night train west.”
“Train doesn’t stop there.”
“But it can be flagged, can’t it?”