While here he had fallen in with footpads who had sought to rob him.

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

A JOYOUS MEETING.

By the time Colonel Dartwell's story was told he and Jerry had landed in the metropolis, and a hurried walk of a few minutes brought them to Nellie Ardell's apartment. Mrs. Flannigan was waiting for our hero, having put both of the children to bed.

"An' did ye find Miss Ardell?" she asked, quickly.

"No, Mrs. Flannigan. But I have found somebody else--the father of little Dottie."

"Indade, now! An' ain't that noice'" she exclaimed, glancing at Colonel Dartwell's well-dressed figure. "Well, the poor dear needs somebody, not but what she got good care here," she added, hastily.

Tears stood in the colonel's eyes as he stepped up beside the bed upon which Dottie lay. He took the white-robed figure up in his arms and kissed her face.

"It is she," he said, in a choking voice. "The living picture of her dead mother!"

Dottie awoke with a start and was inclined to cry out. But Jerry and the colonel quickly soothed her.

"I am your papa, Dottie; don't you remember papa and big Ruth that used to be with you?"

The little girl looked puzzled. Then she gave a cry.

"Papa! papa! I know you! I knew you would come to me! Oh, papa, don't go away again! Crazy Jim said you were dead! Oh, papa!"

And she clung to him convulsively. It was such an affecting scene Jerry had to turn away, while Mrs. Flannigan, standing in the partly open doorway, shed copious tears.

An hour later the children had again retired, and the colonel and the young oarsman sat in the little kitchen talking.

"And you say you think Miss Ardell was abducted?" he said.

"I felt sure of it, sir. This Alexander Sloc.u.m wants to get her out of the way on account of some property he is holding back from her. I am interested in the same property."

And Jerry told him the particulars of affairs so far as they concerned Sloc.u.m.

"If the land in question is near Sacramento it ought to be of great value," said the colonel. "Property in that section is booming."

"I want to find Nellie Ardell, sir. I am afraid he will do her bodily harm. He might even kill her to get her out of the way."

"I will help you all I can, Upton. You have done me a great service, and I certainly owe the young lady much for taking my child in and caring for her."

Our hero and the colonel went over the matter carefully for fully an hour and decided to start on a hunt as soon as it grew light. The colonel offered to employ a detective and this offer Jerry readily accepted.

Jerry pa.s.sed several hours trying to sleep, and at the first sign of dawn was up and dressed. The colonel had rested in an arm-chair, not caring to separate himself from his child by going to a hotel.

Mrs. Flannigan was again called upon and readily agreed to take charge of Tommy and Dottie once more. She took them to her own rooms and was cautioned about letting strangers in.

"Don't fear, they'll not take 'em from me," she said, and in such a determined way that Jerry was compelled to laugh.

The call at a detective's office was soon over, and it was not as satisfactory as our hero had antic.i.p.ated.

"You mustn't expect too much," laughed the colonel. "In spite of the thrilling detective stories published, detectives are only ordinary men, and cannot do the impossible. Mr. Gray will no doubt go to work in his own way and do the best he can."

Their next movement was to cross to Brooklyn. Here the pair started on the hunt for the carriage that had carried Nellie Ardell off.

An hour was spent in a fruitless search. They were about to give it up, when they saw a carriage coming down to the ferry that was covered with dust and mud.

"That looks as if it had been out in the country a good distance,"

observed Colonel Dartwell. "I'll stop the driver and see what he has to say. It can do no harm."

Walking up in front of the team he motioned for the driver to halt.

"Want a carriage, boss?"

"No, I want to know where you have been?" demanded the westerner.

At this question the driver seemed plainly disconcerted. He looked around, and, seeing a clear s.p.a.ce to his left, whipped up his animals and sped off.

"He's our man!" cried the colonel. "Come on, he must not escape us!"

He set off with all speed and Jerry followed. The driver drove as far as the first corner and then had to halt because of a blockade in the street.

"Come down here!" commanded Colonel Dartwell.

"I ain't done nothin'," growled the fellow. "You let me alone."

"I asked you where you had been."

"Up to the park."

"Who did you have for a fare?"

"An old man."

"That's not true--you had two men and a girl."

The carriage driver muttered something under his breath.

"I--I--who said I had the men and a girl?" he asked, surlily.

"I say so. Where did you take the young lady?"

At first the driver beat about the bush. But the colonel threatened him with arrest, and this brought him around.

"Don't arrest me, boss. I wasn't in the game. The men hired me to take 'em out--that was all. They said the girl was light-headed and the place was a private asylum."