“Oh! I believe you will!” cried the lame boy; “but do so as soon as you can. Think how frightened she must be, and how she must suffer. She will be ill again. Can’t I help you search?”
Taking the note, he went to police headquarters, and reported what had happened. He was asked many questions, and the officer in charge promised that an immediate search for the abducted girl should be made.
Then Frank and Jack started out to search for the missing girl, asking questions everywhere. Till after midnight they wandered about the streets, but found no clew. The lame boy was ready to drop from exhaustion, and Frank literally carried him home on his back.
“Oh, Frank!” sobbed little Jack; “I’ll never see my sister any more. I know I shall not!”
“Yes, you will,” assured Merry. “She will be found.”
“He has taken her away--away out of the city. I feel sure of that, Frank.”
“Because he had not the money to do anything of the sort. He used his money as fast as he received it, and I do not believe he had a dollar left to his name five hours after he was discharged from his job on the railroad.”
“But he might put her on a train some way. He might put her into a box car, and carry her off that way.”
“He might,” admitted Frank; “but I do not believe he has. It is likely that by morning the police will have found them both.”
It was difficult to reassure and quiet the boy, and Frank himself feared there might be some truth in Jack’s fancy that old Joe had carried Nellie off in a box car. The old engineer knew the ropes about the railroad so well that he might do such a thing with very little trouble.
Still carrying Jack, Frank mounted the stairs to the rooms they called home.
“Oh, it don’t seem that I can go in there!” moaned the lame boy. “It will be so bare and lonely without her!”
They heard a voice singing softly and sweetly, “Nearer, My God, to Thee!”
Frank bounded up the stairs and flung open the door. Beside the bed sat Nellie. She heard them and turned, with a finger uplifted, still singing.
On the bed lay the old engineer, and there was an ashen grayness to his face. One glance revealed to Frank that the man was facing the last mystery of life--death!
Merry lowered little Jack and gave him his crutch. Then they slowly and softly approached the bed.