As the luggage was being removed from the top of the coach, he overheard the agent tell the expressman to check the "lady's" trunk to San Luis.

Key was seized with an idea which seemed to solve the difficulty, although it involved a risk of losing the clue entirely.

There were two routes to San Luis, one was by stage, and direct, though slower; the other by steamboat and rail, via San Francisco.

If he took the boat, there was less danger of her discovering him, even if she chose the same conveyance; if she took the direct stage,--and he trusted to a woman's avoidance of the hurry of change and transshipment for that choice,--he would still arrive at San Luis, via San Francisco, an hour before her.

He resolved to take the boat; a careful scrutiny from a stateroom window of the arriving passengers on the gangplank satisfied him that she had preferred the stage.