Part 28 (1/2)
”Say, do you know what?” cried Tom. ”I think we ought to got to Cedarville ourselves.”
”That's the talk!” cried Sam. ”We can't do anything here but suck our thumbs.”
”We'll wait until morning and see if any word comes,” answered d.i.c.k, who did not want to do anything hastily. ”Perhaps father may want us to work on the case from this end.”
”What about Fred and Hans?” asked Tom.
”They'll go along-part of the way,” answered Sam. ”They said they would.”
”It's too bad to break up their vacation.”
”Oh, they understand matters. And, besides, they are both going elsewhere next week,” answered Tom.
Impatiently the three Rovers waited for news from their father or from the Stanhopes. At supper time Mr. Randolph Rover returned from Oak Run.
”Here is a telegram from your father, stating he arrived safely at Cedarville,” said the boys' uncle. ”We ought to get some word late tonight about this mysterious affair.”
A little later Tom was outside, walking around the piazza. He was looking on the ground, and presently saw something bright lying at the foot of a bush, and stooped to pick it up. It was a queer-shaped stone, of blue and white.
”I've seen that stone before,” he murmured, as he turned it over in his hand. ”It doesn't belong to any of our folks. Maybe it is Fred's, or Hans'.”
With his find in his hand he entered the house, where the others were just sitting down to the table to eat. He held the stone up to view.
”Any of you lose this?” he asked, and looked at Fred and Hans.
”Dot ain't vos mine,” declared Hans, readily. ”Vot vos it, a stone from a preastbin?”
”I guess it is from a watch locket,” said Tom.
Fred looked at the stone and started.
”Let me see it!” he cried, and held it close to the light. ”Well, I declare!” he gasped.
”What about it, Fred?” asked d.i.c.k and Sam, in a breath.
”I don't know who this stone belongs to, but I do know that Tad Sobber used to wear one just like it, when he went to Putnam Hall!”
CHAPTER XVI SOMETHING OF A CLUE
”Tad Sobber!”
The cry came simultaneously from all of the Rover boys.
”Yah, dot's so!” exclaimed Hans. ”I remember him now. Vonce I vos ask Sobber vere he got dot sthone.”
”If the stone belongs to Sobber-he must have been here!” gasped out Sam.
”Do you think he is around now?” asked Tom, and threw his eyes about the lawn, as if half expecting their enemy to show himself.