The Galloping Ghost

"What did they take you for?" the whisper demanded.

"I--I don't know."

"Don't know?"

"Fact."

After that a great silence settled over the place. This Red could not understand. Why had she started the conversation if she did not expect to finish it? "Oh, well," he told himself at last, "girls are queer anyway." He settled back comfortably in his place.

Truth was, the girl suspected him of being a decoy placed there by the kidnapers. In the end she came to see that she had little to lose if she confided in a decoy.

Again came her long drawn signal, demanding attention. And after that:

"Don't you want to escape?"

"Never wanted anything half so much in my life!"

Then in a sudden burst of confidence he told her of the game that was to be on Saturday, of the veteran coach's fatherly interest in his career, of his hopes, his fears, his secret ambitions. All this he poured into a not unwilling ear. Only he did not tell