So there was more than one person who wanted him to help and was confident of his success. And even Half-Breed Jake and Laughing Mary seemed to feel that he was in some way involved in the matter. Should he go or stay? Time was passing.
The grinning porter looked at him doubtfully, then picked up his stool and climbed up the steps of the last car. The long train, with its shining brass rails, hooded vestibules and sleepy passengers peering from the windows, looked as though it had come from another world than this wild, wooded country where such strange things could come to pass. The brakeman glanced inquiringly over his shoulder and shouted,
“All aboard!”
The bell began to jangle, the wheels creaked and groaned, the heavy cars slowly gathered headway—there was still time to run and catch the last step, but Hugh did not move. The line of cars, with a final echoing whistle, slid away into the morning mist and disappeared behind the shoulder of a hill, leaving him behind, committed at last to his adventure.
CHAPTER IV
THE HEART OF THE FOREST
Linda Ingmarsson was standing at the door when Hugh and Carl came up the path. She did not seem to be at all surprised to see him.
“I met Jethro Brown at the station,” he explained briefly. “He told me, oh, quite a lot of things. I decided not to take the train, to go into the woods instead.”
Linda shook her head gravely.
“I think I know what he told you,” she said. “It is a mad plan. You ought not to go.”