Part 4 (1/2)
”Tickets!” exclaimed Jack. ”Tickets?”
”Yes. They seemed all right-I mean respectful and all that. They said they had unexpectedly run out of funds and wanted to know if I wouldn't buy some railroad tickets they had to New York. I said I hadn't any use for them, and couldn't get off to go to New York anyhow, as this was our busy season.”
”So you didn't buy them?” asked Cora. ”But I thought you said--”
”I didn't buy the railroad tickets,” said the young lady manager. ”But I did purchase two tickets for the opera performance that is to be given at Chelton on Friday night. I'd been wanting to go, and I was going to telephone for tickets when these young men said they had two good ones they'd let me have for less than the regular price.”
”And you took them?” asked Walter.
”Yes. It seemed a bargain, and I am desirous to see the play.”
”Do you mind letting me see the tickets?” asked Jack.
”Certainly you may see them,” was the answer, and from her pocketbook, which she had left in charge of the cas.h.i.+er, the manager took out two slips of blue pasteboard.
”Hum! They seem regular all right,” remarked Jack. ”Date and seat numbers all proper. I know where those seats are, too, right in the middle of the first row balcony. I always sit there myself when I go.”
”They said they were good seats,” declared the girl, ”and I saved a dollar. They wanted the money they said, for they had spent their last for some ice cream. They seemed to be all right.”
”Maybe they were,” agreed Jack. ”Of course it's perfectly proper for persons who can't use railroad or theatre tickets they have purchased, to sell them again. And these tickets seem to be the same as those you would get at the box office. And there's no crime in being without cash.
But it is a crime to take an automobile.”
”The only question is whether the same two fellows are involved,”
suggested Walter.
”That's it,” agreed Jack. ”I wish you girls had had a better look at those who went off in the machine.”
”It all happened so suddenly,” Belle explained.
”Yes, such things generally do,” remarked Cora. ”Well, there's nothing else to do, is there?”
”I guess not,” said Jack, who had telephoned in the additional description of the young men who had sold the tickets, adding the information that there was only a suspicion that they were the same two who were responsible for the taking of the car.
”If they had only kept the theatre tickets, instead of selling them,”
said Walter, ”we'd have a good chance of arresting them.”
”How?” Belle demanded.
”By watching those two seats. As soon as the fellows came in to take their places we could have an officer arrest them.”
”Please don't try it on me,” begged the young lady who had purchased the coupons. ”I don't want a scene,” and she regarded Walter smilingly.
”Of course not,” agreed Cora. ”Oh, dear! My nice car, that I was counting on taking to Camp Surprise with me.”
”We'll get it back before then!” declared Jack.
”Oh! but we're going earlier than we planned originally,” said Belle.