"Because the hotel people permitted it, as he was vouched for by Mr.

Carson, who seems to be well known to everybody in this city."

"You don't suppose anything has happened to detain him, do you?"

anxiously asked the actress. "I do hope we shall not make another bad start, same as we did before. Agnes Kirk says she knows something will happen, for Mr. Merriwell gave away the cat Mascot."

"Agnes Kirk is forever prophesying something dismal," said Hodge. "She's a regular croaker. If she didn't have something to croak about, she wouldn't know what to do. She declared the cat a hoodoo in the first place, but now she says we'll have bad luck because Frank let it go. She makes me a trifle weary!"

Hodge was not in a pleasant humor.

Granville Garland and Lester Vance came up.

"It's almost train time," said Garland. "Where is our energetic young manager?"

"He will be along," Havener again a.s.serted.

"I hope so," said Vance. "I sincerely hope this second venture will not prove such a miserable fizzle as the first one. Everything depends on Frank Merriwell."

"Something depends on you!" flashed Hodge, who seemed easily nettled.

"Frank Merriwell's company did all it could to make the first venture a fizzle. Now they should do all they can to make this one a success."

"h.e.l.lo, Thundercloud is lowering!" exclaimed Garland.

"Save your epithets!" exclaimed Bart. "My name is Hodge."

"My dear Hodge," said Garland, with mock politeness, "you must know it is but natural that we should feel a bit anxious."

"I may feel as anxious as any of you, but I do not go round croaking about it."

"But our first failure----"

"There it is again! I'm tired of hearing about that! You and Vance are dead lucky to be in this second company, for you both joined in the attempted a.s.sault on Merriwell when Folansbee skipped, and the company seemed to be stranded in Puelbo. If I'd been Frank Merriwell I'd sent you flying, and you can bet I would not have taken you back."

"Then it's fortunate for us that you were not Frank Merriwell," Garland sneered.

"It is," agreed Hodge. "Some people do not know when they are treated well."

"That will do!" came sharply from Havener. "This is no time to quarrel.

By Jove! it's time for that train, and Merriwell's not here."

"Perhaps he's backed out at the last minute and decided not to take the play out," said Vance. "It may be that his courage has failed him."

"Now that kind of talk makes me sick!" exploded Hodge. "If you had any sense you wouldn't make it!"

"I like that!" snapped Vance, his face flushing.

"I'm glad you do!" flung back Bart. "Didn't think you would. Hoped you wouldn't. Only a fool would suppose that, after all this trouble and expense, any man with an ounce of brains in his head would back out without giving a single performance of the play."

"Well, where is Merriwell?"

Again Havener declared:

"He'll be here."

"But here comes the train!"

The train was coming. There was activity and bustle at the station. The platform was alive with moving human beings. Agnes Kirk and Ca.s.sie Lee came out of the ladies' waiting room. The male members of the company got together quickly.

"He has not come!" exclaimed Agnes Kirk, her keen eyes failing to discover Frank. "I feared it! I knew it!"

Hodge half turned away, grumbling something deep in his throat.

The actors looked at each other in doubt and dismay.

With a rush and a roar the train came in, and drew up at the station.

Pa.s.sengers began to get off.

A heavily veiled woman in black came out of the ladies' room, and started for the train. As she pa.s.sed the group of actors some of their conversation seemed to attract her notice. She paused an instant and looked them over, and then she turned toward the steps of a car.

"Excuse me, madam," said Hodge, quickly. "You have dropped your handkerchief."

He picked it up and pa.s.sed it to her. As he did so, he noticed the letters "L. F." on one corner.

"Thank you," she said, in a low voice.

At that moment, for the last time, Havener was reiterating:

"I believe Frank Merriwell will be here. All get onto the train. He never gets left."

Then the woman tossed her head a bit and laughed. It was a scornful laugh, and it attracted the attention of several of the group. She turned quickly, and stepped into the nearest car.

"Something tells me he will not arrive," declared Agnes Kirk. "The hoodoo is still on. This company will meet the same fate the other did."

"Don't talk so much about it," advised Havener, rather rudely. "Get onto the train--everybody!"

Hodge was staring after the veiled woman.

"Wonder what made her laugh like that?" he muttered. "Seems to me I've heard that laugh before. It seemed full of scornful triumph. I wonder----"

He did not express his second wonder.

"Come, Hodge," said Havener, "get aboard. Follow the others."

"I'll be the last one," said Hodge. "I'm waiting for Frank.

"I'm afraid," confessed Havener, beginning to weaken.

"Afraid of what?" Hodge almost hissed.

"It begins to look bad," admitted the stage manager. "I'm afraid something has happened to Frank. If he doesn't come----"