"Oh, if only we get some sort of encouraging word at Spokane!" sighed Sam.
"We ought to hear from Jim Hendricks," answered Dick. "That is, if he is home and got our message." They knew that the Hendricks family were rich and that Jim had a great deal of time to himself.
At Spokane they left the train, for they did not want to go down to Portland, whither it was bound. They asked at the telegraph office for a message and one was handed over to them.
"This is something like it!" cried Dick, as he read it aloud. It ran as follows:
"My sincere sympathy. I remember Tom well and will be on the watch for him. Will meet you on your arrival.
"JAMES V. HENDRICKS."
"Well, that's one word of encouragement," said Sam. "Good for Jim! I thought he'd help us."
"If he only got the message in time to catch Tom," returned his brother. "We were rather late in getting it to him, remember."
"We'll have to hope for the best."
While the boys were waiting around Spokane, for the train to take them to Seattle, they fell in with a commercial drummer who said he was waiting for a companion with some sample cases. He was a kindly-looking man and during the course of his conversation let slip the news that he had been on the train Tom had taken.
"Perhaps you can give us some information," cried Dick. "We are trying to catch a young man who was on that train," and he gave a few of the particulars.