Part 4 (2/2)
”And she wants you boys to come, too!” cried Bess.
”No more than you do!” snapped Belle, her fair face flus.h.i.+ng.
”What's the idea?” asked Walter.
”It's getting so unbearably warm,” said Cora, and then she explained that they might go earlier than originally planned to the bungalow camp in the mountains.
”Well, we might manage it,” Jack said. ”We'll talk it over, Wally. Have to see Paul, though I guess he'd fit in anywhere Bess went.”
”Oh! is that so?” cried the plump girl, blus.h.i.+ng in her turn.
The tea room people promised to be on the lookout for the strange young men, and to notify Jack or the police if they came around again.
”But if they were the ones who took the car they won't come back,”
Walter declared.
By crowding, all the young people managed to get in Jack's car. On the way back to Chelton a sharp lookout was kept for the missing machine, but no trace of it was seen, and Cora was much depressed when she reached home.
”Never mind,” whispered Jack, ”you may use mine, Sis, until yours shows up. Don't worry, we'll get it yet.”
”I hope so,” murmured Cora.
CHAPTER IV-A CURIOUS STORY
Such measures as one might expect to have taken in a place like Chelton and the surrounding towns were taken by the authorities in an endeavor to recover Cora's stolen automobile. For stolen it certainly was, and not taken in a joke. That fact was patent when several days pa.s.sed and no trace of it was found and no word received as to where it might have been taken or abandoned by the two strange young men.
”They might merely have taken it to get some place, seeing that they had no money,” observed Belle, when the three girls were talking the matter over one day at Cora's house.
”They had railroad tickets, though,” said Belle.
”Yes, but to New York, and perhaps they didn't want to go there.”
”I should think New York would be just the place where they would want to go if they had no money,” came from Cora. ”There are so many chances to make money there.”
”Perhaps they didn't dare go,” suggested Belle.
”What do you mean?” came in a duet from the others.
”They might have done something-perhaps have taken another auto-and they knew the police would be after them,” explained Belle.
”Quite dramatic,” observed Cora. ”But whoever they are or whatever their motive, I wish they'd send back my car. I want it.”
”I don't blame you a bit,” came from Bess. ”Come on, we'll go out on another searching tour.”
”All right,” agreed Cora, and they were soon on the road again in the car of the Robinson twins. The girls had not left it all to the authorities to find the missing automobile. They had made diligent inquiries themselves on all roads leading out of Chelton and in the vicinity of the tea room. Nor had the boys been idle. Paul Hastings arrived in town on business connected with the automobile concern by which he was employed, and he, Jack and Walter, made it their business to scurry around in Jack's car, looking for clews.
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