“Is he all right?” asked Bob.
“I understand he’ll have to stay in bed for a couple of days.”
“What about the man we knew as Joe Hamsa?”
Merritt Hughes shook his head.
“There are no reports on him. There’s a large searching party out looking along the banks of the stream where he disappeared, but it looks like we’ve seen the last of him.”
Bob wished that he could have had the confidence his uncle displayed in believing that Joe Hamsa was gone forever.
At his uncle’s urging, Bob recounted in detail everything that had taken place after the Limited left Washington.
“So Hamsa hid out on top of the observation car?” mused the federal agent. “Well, that’s a new one for me. No wonder you failed to find him even though you went through the train several times.”
Bob motioned toward his bag beneath the berth, “Now how about my shirt? Then some breakfast, and I’ll be ready to go along on my assignment.”
“You’ll do nothing of the kind. You’re going to spend the rest of the day in bed in my room at the hotel. Tomorrow we’ll talk about your going on to Atalissa. I’m not sure that I want you to go there alone. It’s a tough little town. People know too much there, but they won’t talk. Either scared or in league with some illegal racket.”