So they hurried on through the crowd of trainmen, redcaps, travelers, dodged between baggage trucks, around piles of freight, and down the stairs to the station proper.
“We were lots farther out than I thought,” observed Jeanette, as they perched on stools before the soda fountain.
While they were waiting for their orders to be filled, Nancy’s eyes fell upon a man who was lounging on one of the near-by benches. His clothes had once been good, but were now very shabby, and he looked as if he might be slightly the worse for liquor.
“His face looks familiar,” she thought. “I wonder where I have seen him before.”
She puzzled over the likeness for a few minutes, and then gave it up. After all, there were so many similar types. One was always saying, “That person looks so much like so-and-so.”
While the girls were enjoying their sodas, the man, whose attention had been attracted to them when they first approached the counter, eyed them attentively. As they paid the check and turned away, he got up, and moving across the short space between them, stood directly in their way. They were about to walk around him, when he spoke.
“Say,” he demanded, in a low tone, “what did you do with my sister?”
“Your sister?” repeated Nancy, in astonishment.
“Come on! Don’t notice him,” whispered Jeanette, trying to urge them on their way.
“Now just you wait a minute,” he persisted. “Don’t try to get away from me. There’s something I want to find out and you’ve got to tell me.”