As the conductor called the station the train halted and the girl passed
the rear seat, where the man had his bare head half out the open window,
and descended from the car to the platform. A few others also alighted,
to hurry away to the omnibuses or street car or walk to their
destinations.

Mary Louise stood quite still upon the platform until the train drew out
after its brief stop. It was nearly six o'clock in the evening and fast
growing dark, yet she distinctly observed the fat-nosed man, who had
alighted on the opposite side of the track and was now sauntering
diagonally across the rails to the depot, his hands thrust deep in his
pockets and his eyes turned away from Mary Louise as if the girl
occupied no part of his thoughts.

But she knew better than that. Her suspicions were now fully confirmed
and she sought to evade the detective in just the way any inexperienced
girl might have done. Turning in the opposite direction she hastily
crossed the street, putting a big building between herself and the
depot, and then hurried along a cross-street. She looked back now and
then and found she had not been followed; so, to insure escape, she
turned another corner, giving a fearful glance over her shoulder as she
did so.

This street was not so well lighted as the others had been and she had
no idea where it led to. She knew Dorfield pretty well, having once
resided there for three years, but in her agitated haste she had now
lost all sense of direction. Feeling, however, that she was now safe
from pursuit, she walked on more slowly, trying to discover her
whereabouts, and presently passed a dimly-lighted bakery before which a