"If they serve us no better purpose, we can show them to our chief when we get back to New York, so he will have evidence of what we are doing," said Old King Brady, with a faint smile.
"He expected a report from us to-night, on the case he put us on, but he won't get it," said Harry, grimly.
The boy referred to some work they had been doing before they stumbled upon the Thirty-sixth street affair.
Information had reached the Central Office that Oliver Dalton, a Broad street broker, suspected his nephew, Ronald Mason, of robbing his mail.
The detectives had gone to the broker's house in West Thirty-eighth street to get the particulars privately. But the man's daughter, Lizzie, told them her father had not yet come home. They waited for him till nearly eight o'clock, and as Mr. Dalton did not appear, they were going back to headquarters when they stumbled upon the suspicious case already recorded here.
Old King Brady smiled at Harry's remark.
"There's no great hurry about that case," he remarked.
"Well," said the boy, "are you ready to go through the cars on a hunt for Solomon Gloom? We must make sure of our man before he has a chance to alight at a way station and elude us."
Old King Brady bent nearer to Harry, to reply, when suddenly a cloth was thrown over their heads by a man who sat behind them.
The cloth was saturated with chloroform.
While the detectives were struggling to extricate their heads, they inhaled the deadly fumes and were overcome by the drug.
Not until they were fast asleep did the man remove the cloth.
No one had seen the deed, as they occupied the last seats in the aisle and not an undue noise had arisen to attract attention.
Seeing the detectives stupid from the drug, a low chuckle escaped the man, and he rose to his feet and muttered:
"Sleep, you dogs! Tracked me, eh? Well, it won't do you any good. You'll be snoring long after we reach Georgia. And when you do arouse yourselves, you'll find the box gone from this train. This must be a mighty good disguise, if you failed to recognize Solomon Gloom in it – really, a very clever disguise."
And he chuckled again, glanced at the gray suit and bicycle cap he wore, felt of the false beard covering his face and walked into one of the forward cars where he had a chance to remain until the opportunity came for him to alight at his destination.
The lightning express train went thundering along over the rails and the Bradys slept on until mid-day.
When they aroused themselves, the cars had left Charleston.
Their fury knew no bounds, and Old King Brady said, bitterly:
"It must have been Gloom who did that."
"If it were, he was cleverly disguised and must have been the fellow who sat behind us apparently reading a newspaper," replied Harry.
"Perhaps he's on the train yet."
"If he is, we'll find him."
"All I want is to get my hands on the rascal!"
"Are you ready to search for him?"
"Come ahead," replied Old King Brady, rising to his feet.
They passed slowly through the car, carefully studying each passenger.
There were two more passenger coaches, a smoking car and a baggage car ahead, and the detectives searched them thoroughly for the undertaker.
But to their disgust he was not found.
They paused on the platform of the baggage car and Harry exclaimed:
"He must have checked the box through on a ticket he bought for Savannah, and then hid somewhere on this train."
"Which shows what a foxy gentleman we have to contend with," muttered Old King Brady, grimly. "He feared pursuit."
"No doubt of it."
"Here comes the conductor. We can explain matters to him and open the box."
They had no trouble to persuade the conductor of the importance of seeing what the box contained, and they all had a talk with the baggage master.
He held them off until nightfall.
As the Bradys promised to have him absolved from blame, he finally gave his permission to them to open the box.
Harry cut the rope that bound it and Old King Brady pried off the lid with an axe taken from one of the racks.
The conductor held a lantern over the box.
As the lid fell off, they were startled to see the body of a man lying in the box.
His face was partly averted, as he lay upon his side.
But the detectives saw that he was a man of about fifty, his portly form clad in a dark suit of clothes. His head was partly bald on top and his hair was gray. There was a closely-trimmed mustache of the same color on his upper lip, and his flesh, although pallid, had not yet changed to the waxen hue of death.
It was evident that he was a victim of foul play, for his hands were bound behind his back, and his ankles tied together, while a gag was secured over his mouth as if to stifle his outcries.
The detectives had no chance to observe any more, just then, for there suddenly sounded a quick danger signal of the locomotive's whistle.
The engineer shut off steam, put on the brakes, and the startled conductor rushed from the car with the lantern, leaving the place in gloom.
"What can be the matter?" muttered Old King Brady.
"There's a fire on the track ahead!" said Harry, peering out the side door.
"Where are we?" queried the baggage master, hastily.
"Next to a big swamp," replied Harry. "And, by Jove – see – see! There's an obstruction – a heap of sleepers piled across the rails beyond the bonfire."
"What the deuce can that mean?" muttered Old King Brady. "Bandits trying to rob this train? It don't seem possible, in this neighborhood."
The train paused and they all alighted.
Some of the brakemen ran ahead, and under the conductor's direction they removed the obstructions from the rails.
The fire seemed to have been built where it was to show the engineer the pile of sleepers, and the brakemen scattered it, when the barrier was removed.
As the bell rang, every one got aboard and the cars slowly went ahead.
The Bradys and the baggage master returned to the latter's car.
"We'll finish our examination of that body," said Old King Brady.
"Yes," said Harry, "and – Good gracious! Where's the box gone?"
Box and body had vanished.
Every one was astounded.
Then, like a flash, the truth suddenly dawned upon Harry's mind, and he cried:
"Now I see through it. Those obstructions were put on the rails to stop the train at this point so that the body could be removed from this car."
"By whom?" demanded the startled baggage master.
"Accessories of the villain who killed that man!" cried the boy. "They've carried the body off in the swamp to hide the evidence of their crime. Come, Old King Brady, alight here and see if we can trace it."
The detectives made a rush for the door and leaped from the train.
They landed beside the roadbed, and the cars went on without them.
CHAPTER III.
THE GREAT SWAMP MYSTERY
Heavy banks of dark clouds were flying across the lowering sky. Occasionally the big silvery moon burst from the rifts and flooded the landscape with its mellow light.
During