"They're going East," he muttered. "I wonder if they can be on their way to Kansas? What good will it do King to go there, after being turned down by Colonel Plympton?"
This was too hard a nut for Higgins to crack. He tried to find out, at the ticket window, what place Matt and Carl had booked for, but a good many people had bought tickets and the agent had not noticed Matt and Carl particularly.
Baffled in this move, Higgins stepped to a telegraph office and despatched the following message:
"Ralph Sercomb, on Limited Train No. 10, Dodge City, Kansas: King and his Dutch pal left Denver on east-bound train at noon. Unable to ascertain their destination.
Higgins."
"That puts it up to Sercomb," muttered Higgins as he paid for the message and turned away. "I'll bet there'll be warm doings in Kansas before long."
[CHAPTER VII.]
BRISK WORK AT DODGE CITY.
Matt and Carl had to change cars at a place called La Junta, and there was a tedious wait. In due course, however, they resumed their journey, slept out the night in a sleeping-car and got out at Dodge City for breakfast. The train halted for twenty minutes to give the passengers a chance to eat. This stop was to prove an exciting twenty minutes for Matt and Carl.
Just as they were moving with a crowd of other hungry passengers toward the door of the eating-house a shabby and seedy personage strolled out, chewing a toothpick.