“It will get us up there in less than an hour,” added Chick. “It’s an express. The chief has that train schedule down fine. He never has to look at a timetable.”
“Meanwhile, I will have the housekeeper give us a meal of some kind. She is a wonder at preparing a tasty luncheon or supper at short notice.”
“I don’t think I’m hungry,” protested the girl.
“I know better,” contradicted Carter, smiling as he saw that Chick was already at the house telephone, giving directions to the housekeeper. “And your father needs something, too. You wouldn’t deprive him of the refreshment he needs, I am sure, even if you were to refuse it for yourself.”
Thus chatting, to prevent Bessie Silvius objecting further, Nick led the way into the dining room, where, in a wonderfully short space of time, there were tea, coffee, cold meat, cake, pie, and other articles of food, set forth in appetizing array.
Roscoe Silvius evidently was hungry. The old gentleman attacked everything set before him, and praised each dish as it reached him. Bessie also was hungry, although she was not so ravenous as her father, while the chief and Chick disposed of their food in the businesslike manner of sensible men, who did not know when they would get a meal again, and were determined to make the most of the one they had.
The taxi that was to take them to the Grand Central was at the door when they went downstairs, and they were comfortably seated in a parlor car two minutes before the time for the train to pull out.
“It all seems so wonderful,” declared Bessie, smiling, as she settled down in the comfortable, roomy chair, and looked along the car. “This morning I had no thought of finding him again in this world. Now, in the evening, I am on my way to see him.”
“You are almost too optimistic, I’m afraid,” said Nick, with a smile. “We may not find him at Milmarsh. Only, I think that he may be there. I have reasons of my own for believing so, but they may all turn out fallacious. There goes the train.”
In less than half an hour they were in a motor car, hired at the station, and on their way up to the Milmarsh mansion.