"It is true, then! true as we surmised. Mrs. Stillwater was the unknown lady found unconscious in the dressing room of the Hudson River Railroad and taken to St. L----'s. Cora!"
"Go and pack our effects immedately. I will go down and settle the bill and leave a letter of explanation for Sylvanus. Get your bonnet on and be ready. The carriage will be at the door in twenty minutes."
Cora hurried off to her room and to her grandfather's room, which adjoined hers, to prepare for the sudden journey. She quickly packed and labeled their traveling bags, and rang for a porter to take them down stairs.
Then she put on her bonnet and duster and went down and joined her grandfather in the parlor.
"Come," he said, "the carriage is at the door and our traps on the box. I have written to Sylvanus, telling him to join us at the Blank House, where we will wait for him."
He turned abruptly and went out, followed by Cora.
They entered the waiting carriage and were rapidly driven down to the ferry.
The boat was at the wharf. They alighted from the carriage and went on board.
Old Aaron Rockharrt's hot haste did not avail them much. The boat remained at the wharf for ten minutes, during which the Iron King secretly fumed and fretted.
"Does this boat connect with the 10:50 train for New York?" he inquired.
The five remaining minutes seemed hours, but they passed at length and the boat left the shore, and old Aaron Rockharrt walked up and down the deck impatiently.
As they neared the other side the whistle of a down train was heard approaching.
"There! I said you would miss it!" exclaimed the Iron King.
"That train does not stop here, sir," was the good humored answer.
The boat touched the wharf at Garrison's, and the passengers got off.
Old Aaron Rockharrt led his granddaughter up to the platform to wait for the train; but no train was in sight or hearing.
"After all, we have seven minutes to wait," he growled, as if time and tide were much in fault at not being at his beck and call.
"Had we not better go into the waiting room?" suggested Cora.
"No, we will stand here," replied the Iron King, who on general principles never acted upon a suggestion.
So there they stood--the old man growling at intervals as he looked up the road; Cora gazing out upon the fine scenery of river and mountain.