"I wonder if all the passengers were gotten out of the sleeper?" asked Miss Thompson when they had finally reached the cars up ahead and Grace had been comfortably disposed of in another sleeper.
Barbara started.
"Oh, I forgot. Conductor! There was a man in the smoking compartment of our car."
The porter who had followed them with the other passengers and such luggage as he could find, shook his head.
"I know there was. I had forgotten all about it," declared Bab. "I heard someone groan in there as I passed the compartment with my friend. Where is the man who occupied the lower berth of section thirteen?"
No one had seen him. All the other passengers had been accounted for, but no one had seen the tall, slim, sandy-haired man from section number thirteen.
"Then he is in that smoking compartment. I saw him when he went there. The compartment was on fire when I passed it," cried Barbara Thurston, springing up, her face flushed, her eyes large and troubled.
"If there's anyone there the men will find him. There was no fire in that car," said the conductor, with which statement the porter agreed.
"There was smoke," declared Bab. "I don't know about fire. I do know that I'm going back to find out about that man," she announced.