"Fas' as I kin widout damagin' de hosses, Miss Zoe," answered the old
coachman. "Marso Ed'ard allus tole me be keerful ob dem, and de roads am
putty bad sence de big storm."

Zoe glanced at her watch as they entered the village. "Drive directly to
the depot, Uncle Ben," she said. "It's fully fifteen minutes past the
time for the train to be in."

"I ain't heard de whistle, Miss Zoe," he remarked, as he turned his
horses' heads in the desired direction.

"No, nor have I," said Ella; "and we ought to have heard it fully five
minutes before it got in. There may have been a detention. That is
nothing very unusual," she hastened to add, as she saw that Zoe had
suddenly grown very pale.

The carriage drew up before the door of the depot; and the girls leaned
from its windows, sending eager, searching glances from side to side,
and up and down the track.

No train was in sight, and the depot seemed strangely silent and
deserted.

"Oh!" cried Zoe, "what can be the matter?"

"I suppose the train must have got in some time ago,--perhaps before we
left Ion," replied Ella, in a re-assuring tone; "and all the passengers
have dispersed to their homes, or wherever they were going."

"No, there could not have been time for all that," Zoe responded, in