dave and roger talked to the fruit-stand boy a few minutes longer, and then jumped into the automobile and rode up to the bliss house, an old-fashioned hotel, standing on a corner and surrounded by a number of stately elm trees.

“i can’t understand this at all, dave,” said roger, while on the way. “what would take those girls uptown? they must have known that the train might come along at any minute, and then, if they weren’t on hand to get aboard, they’d be left.”

“it certainly is a mystery, roger. all we can do is to follow up this clue and see where it leads to. from what that man who had the motorcycle said, and from what the lame boy told us, it is pretty certain that jessie and laura got off the train at the crossing and did not get on again at this railroad station. and if they came up to the hotel here, they must have had some purpose in so doing.”

the country hotel was not a very busy place, 231and the chums found the clerk quite willing to give them all the information he could. he did not, however, remember the girls; nor did the proprietor of the place, who came up to see what was wanted, remember them.

“i don’t think they came here. or, if they did, they didn’t come to the office,” said the clerk. “i was here all day, and i know.”

“did you have any strangers around the place that day, so far as you can remember?” questioned dave.

“none to stay. we had half a dozen drummers; but i know all of them, for they have been coming and going for a number of years.”

“wait a minute! come to think of it, there was something else happened that day which i thought was rather queer,” cried the hotel proprietor suddenly. he was a bald-headed man, and he began to scratch his hairless head vigorously. “seems to me it was just about half an hour or so before that train came in, too,” he added, nodding his head emphatically.

“what was the thing that happened?” questioned roger quickly.

“there was a big touring-car came down the kapton road yonder. a man dressed as a chauffeur was driving the machine. he stopped his car and asked for directions, and then the car swung around and came to a stop down there 232near our stables. i sent the boy out to see if anything was wanted—the stable man being off on an errand—and the boy came back and said they wanted to know when that train would get in. then the car moved over to the other side of the street and stood there for five or ten minutes. the chauffeur turned around in his seat to talk very earnestly to a couple who were in the car. i couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they all seemed to be rather excited. then the car went back down the road, and that was the last i saw of it.”

“it wasn’t a car that belonged around here, so far as you knew?” asked our hero.

“no, it didn’t belong around here. it was a great big heavy enclosed affair, and looked as if it had seen pretty rough usage—one of the mud-guards being quite battered. that was one reason why i took notice of it—i thought maybe they had been in some sort of an accident, especially when the chauffeur and the people in the car got to talking so excitedly among themselves.”

“did you notice what kind of people they were?” asked dave.

“i think the chauffeur was a foreigner. he had heavy dark hair and a small dark mustache. he wore a regular cap and goggles, and also a dust-coat.”

233“who were the people in the car?” questioned the senator’s son.

“there were a man and a woman, and i should say they were rather elderly. the woman had a thick veil over her face, and the man wore a dust-coat buttoned up around his throat and a cap pulled far down over his forehead, and i think he had on smoked glasses. i thought the whole bunch might be foreigners, and that was another reason why i noticed them.”

“this is certainly interesting, but i don’t see how it connects up with the disappearance of the girls,” was dave’s comment.

“those gypsies all look like foreigners,” said roger.

“yes. but i don’t think any of them knows how to run an auto. they always use horses.”

“oh, well, they might be getting up-to-date.”

thinking that the incident of the strange touring-car might be worth following up, dave and roger left the hotel and ran their own automobile a distance along the kapton road. from the hotel proprietor they had learned that this road led to the small village of kapton two miles distant.

“this is a good deal like looking for a needle in a haystack,” was roger’s comment.

“true, roger. but if you took the haystack and went over it a wisp at a time, sooner or later you’d come on the needle,” answered dave. 234“and that is what i propose to do in this case—i’m going to follow up every possible clue until we strike something.”

on the outskirts of crandall they came upon a little country home where several children were enjoying themselves at a swing in the open dooryard. here dave stopped the car.

“i suppose you play here nearly every day,” he said to the oldest of the girls, a bright miss of nine or ten years of age.

“oh, yes; whenever the weather is good.”

“and we have lots of fun,” broke in another of the happy group.

“we are trying to find out something about a big automobile that came along here about ten days ago,” said roger. “it was a great big enclosed car, and one of the mud-guards was smashed.”

“oh, i remember that car, nellie!” cried one of the girls. “don’t you remember? it’s the one that stopped over by radley’s orchard.”

“indeed i do remember!” answered nellie, with a toss of her head. “didn’t they come close to running over rover?”

“what did the car stop at the orchard for?” asked dave.

“i don’t know exactly. i think they had to fix something on it. anyway, the man opened the tin door on the top of the front,” answered the 235girl. “that was broken, too, just like the tin thing over the wheels.”

“they didn’t stop for that,” said another one of the girls. “they stopped to send billy barton on an errand down to the hotel.”

this announcement on the part of the little girl filled our hero and roger with increased interest.

“where is this billy barton, and what did he go to the hotel for?” questioned dave.

“the man who ran the car gave billy a note to give to two young ladies who, he said, would either be at the hotel or would soon get there. billy said he saw two young ladies just going into the hotel, and asked them if they were the people he was looking for, and they said ‘yes’; and so billy gave them the note. the man gave him ten cents for doing it. i wish i could deliver a note and get ten cents for it,” continued the little girl wistfully.

“well, you’re going to get ten cents for telling me all about those people in the automobile,” said our hero, and produced several dimes which he distributed among those present, much to their astonishment and gratification.

“but that wasn’t all of it, mister,” said one of the girls. “those young ladies came up here and got into the automobile and rode away.”

“got into the automobile and rode away!” burst out dave and roger simultaneously.

236“yes, sir.”

“i saw them, too!” said the smallest of the girls, who had thus far spoken but little. “they didn’t get in very easy though!”

“they didn’t get in easy?” queried our hero. “what do you mean?”

“why the driver of the automobile and the man who was inside got out and had to shove them both in. i thought they was fooling, but they was awful rough about it.”

“did the girls scream, or anything like that?” asked roger.

“i don’t know. i wasn’t near enough to hear.”

“and then, when the girls were in the auto, what did the others do?”

“oh, they drove away just as fast as they could. they drove so fast that they nearly ran over old mr. merrick.”

“who is he?”

“why, don’t you know old mr. merrick?” asked the little girl. “he lives ’way up the road—up there where you see that little white house. he was standing out in the middle of the road when the automobile rushed past him so fast that he could hardly jump out of the way. he was awful angry. he told my papa that he thought the man ought to be arrested.”

“if only they had arrested them!” murmured dave.

237“and that was the last you saw of that automobile?” asked roger.

“yes, sir,” came from several of the girls at once.

“it hasn’t been this way again?”

“no, sir.”

after that the two chums questioned the little girls closer about the general appearance of the car, and learned that the turnout not only had one of the mud-guards badly bent, but that the side of the car was scratched in several places and that the wind-shield was cracked.

“that’s something to go by, but not much,” remarked our hero. “one thing is certain, we are on the right trail at last. for some reason that isn’t at all clear, jessie and laura left that train at the crossing, walked up to the railroad station here in town, and then to the hotel. there they were met by the small boy with the note, and as a result of receiving that note they came out here and either got into that automobile willingly or were forced into it.”

“but where did the auto go to, dave?”

“that remains to be found out.”

“will you let the authorities know about this?”

“at once! the more people we get on this trail, the quicker we’ll be able to run those rascals down.”