Escape of the hobo queen.

It was about a week later that Nick Carter received a note from the president of the railroad which caused him great astonishment. It was brief and to the point. It read:

“Can you call on me at once? Black Madge has escaped.”

That was all, but it was enough to stir the detective to action, and, taking Patsy, who happened to be in when the message arrived, along with him, Nick at once visited the office of the railroad.

“Well, Carter, it didn’t take long for Black Madge to make good her threat, did it?” said the president as he rose and shook hands with the detectives.

“I think,” replied the detective, smiling, “that, considering the trouble we were put to in capturing her, it was a very short time for us to hold her. Now, what can I do for you, Mr. Cobalt?”

“Do? Why, you can catch Black Madge again for vs.”

“Oh,” said the detective, smiling. “Can I? Well, possibly.”

“You see,” the president continued, “we have called a hasty meeting of the board since the information of the escape of Black Madge came to us, and we have decided that no effort shall be spared to get that woman into custody again. At liberty, she is a constant menace to the welfare of the road, and of every town along the line, as well as of everybody who lives in those towns.”

“I’ll admit that she’s a bad one,” said Nick.

“We don’t want her at liberty. With the following she has, she is a dangerous woman-much more dangerous than a man would be in her position.”

“I don’t know about that. But she is dangerous enough without argument about it.”

“Exactly. We want her caught. And we want you to catch her.”

“I imagine that this time, Mr. Cobalt, it will be rather a harder task than it was before.”

“Why so?”

“She will be very much more on her guard now than then. And, besides, she knows enough about me to know that now I will most certainly hunt her down.”

The railway president was thoughtful a moment, and then he said:

“You see, Carter, the very manner of her escape is a menace to us.”

“How is that?” asked the detective. “The first and, therefore, the only information I have had on the subject was that contained in your message, which told me merely that she had escaped. What is there that is particularly interesting about the manner of her escape?”

“Then you have not heard about it, eh?”

“I have just informed you that I have heard nothing.”

“Well, to say the least, her escape was characteristic. Her hoboes did it for her.”

Nick raised his brows.

“You don’t say so!” he exclaimed. “Well, we might have expected something like that, I suppose. I regarded it as a little bit unfortunate that the arrest was made in the county where it was, for that compelled us to put her temporarily in the Calamont jail-and I thought at the time that the Calamont jail was a trifle close to her stamping ground. Now, suppose you tell me exactly what happened.”

“You know Calamont, of course?” asked the railway president, and the detective smiled broadly.

“I know very little about it,” he said, “with the exception that I assisted in the robbing of a bank that is located there.”

It was the president’s turn to smile.

“That was a queer experience for you, Carter, wasn’t it? But the president of that bank is quite willing that you should rob it again on the same terms. You know we fixed him all up again, and my company promises to keep a large deposit there now. Altogether, they regard your descent upon the bank as a very fortunate experience for them.”

“No doubt. Now about that escape.”

“Calamont is a village of about three thousand inhabitants. That bank, for instance, is the only one there.”

“What has that -”

“Wait a moment. Calamont has suffered a great deal from the depredations of the hoboes, and now has a force of special constables, whose duties consist in arresting and taking to jail every tramp who crosses the borders of the village. The other night, when Madge made her escape, the jail was filled with them.”

“Oh,” said the detective. “I begin to understand.”

“Exactly.”

“It was a put-up job on their part to get as many of their kind as possible in the jail for that night, and then to take their queen out of it; eh?”

“Precisely; and that is just what they did do. You see, the tramps began coming in early in the day. They made intervals between the times of their arrivals, and they appeared at different parts of the town, so that before anybody realized it, the jail was about filled with them. But they seemed not to know one another, and so the residents of the town went peacefully to sleep that night, as usual.”

“Well?”

“Well, in the morning when they woke up, the jail had been gutted-literally gutted.”

“In what sense do you mean?”

“In every sense.”

“Tell me what you mean, please.”

“I mean that all the tramps who had been locked up there overnight had disappeared; that they had managed to break into the main part of the jail, and that when they went away they took Black Madge with them; and that before they went away they passed through the jail with axes and smashed everything in sight. They tore down partitions, they smashed doors, and where the doors could not be smashed, they destroyed the locks. They tied up the jailer, and threatened to kill him-I regard it as a wonder that they did not kill him.”

“So do I. Go on.”

“That is all there is to it. They went there, of course, with the deliberate intention of rescuing Black Madge-and they did it.”

“I suppose they must have taken to the woods north of the railway line; eh?”

“You’ve guessed it, Carter.”

“That is a wild country up through there, Mr. Cobalt.”

“You bet it is. I used to go through there every fall on a hunting expedition, when I was younger. The country hasn’t changed much since that time. It is as wild as if it were in an uncivilized country, instead of being surrounded by -”

“I understand. Then you do know something about that country up through there, eh?”

“Yes; I used to boast that I knew every inch of it; but, of course, that wasn’t quite so, you know.”

“Yet you remember it fairly well?”

“I think so.”

“Tell me something about it, for that is, I think, where I have got to search for the woman we are after.”

“There isn’t much to tell about it, save that it is wild and uneven; that the formation is limestone, and the timber is largely red oak. The mountains-or hills, rather-are not high, but they are precipitous, rocky, impassable, full of ravines, and gulches, and unexpected depressions, and scattered around through that region there are innumerable caves, too.”

“That is bad,” said the detective. “It will make it so much the harder to dislodge the hoboes.”

“So you have got your work cut out for you this time, and no mistake.”

“Could you suggest a competent guide for that region, Mr. Cobalt?”

“Old Bill Turner-if he would go.”

“Who is he?”

“An old hunter, who used to take me out with him, and who afterward served as guide for me. But he is an old man now.”

“Where does he live?”

“In Calamont. You will have no difficulty in finding him. Ask the first man you meet in the street to direct you to old Bill Turner, and he will do it.”

“That part of it is all right-if he is not too old to go.”

“Oh, I think he can be induced to do it. Old Bill likes the looks of a dollar as well as any man you ever knew. You have only to offer him enough, and his rheumatism will disappear like magic.”

“Then that part of it is all right, too. I am to understand that I have the same free hand in the matter that I did before?”

“Of course. Your directions are: Catch Black Madge and break up her gang.”

“And that, I suppose, is about all that you have to say to me at present.”

“Yes; unless you have some questions to ask.”

“Not one, thank you. I will ask them of Black Madge-when I catch her.”

“Good! I hope it won’t be long before you can ask them.”

“I don’t think it will be very long; only, she is a little bit the smartest woman I ever tried to handle.”