“Did you see his face at all, Dave?”

“No. Did you?”

“Not at all. He left the window so quickly I didn’t catch more than a glance of the side of his body.”

“He certainly left in a mighty hurry,” mused our hero.

“Dave, do you imagine it might have been Nick Jasniff?” asked the senator’s son excitedly.

“I thought of that, Roger. As the fellow passed under that lamp-post his form looked something like Jasniff’s. But that is rather a wild guess—a good many fellows might possess his general make-up.”

The two chums went back to their newspapers, and half an hour later they retired to their room. Both arose early, thinking to look over the automobile before breakfast, so that they might be ready to start off immediately after eating. When they reached the hotel garage, they found the colored man who was in charge very much excited.

222“You gemmen didn’t send nobody down here to get your car, did you?” he questioned quickly.

“We certainly did not!” cried Dave.

“Has any one been here to get the car?” questioned the senator’s son.

“A young fellow was here at your machine,” answered the colored man. “I jest stepped over to the hotel to ask the clerk to order some more gasoline, we runnin’ short. When I came back the fellow was at your car. I thought at first it was one of you gemmen, but as soon as I called to him he jumped from the car and went out the back door.”

“How long ago was this?” burst out Dave.

“Not over five minutes ago, boss. I called to the fellow and ran after him, but he jumped over the back fence and got away.”

“Was he a tall young fellow with a soft hat?” queried Roger.

“He was.”

“He must have been the same chap who looked in at the hotel window!” went on the senator’s son to Dave. “Now, what do you make of that?”

“I make of it that he is trying to do us some injury,” answered Dave.

“Do you really think it could be Nick Jasniff?”

“I am sure I don’t know. If it was Jasniff, how in the world did he get up here in this town?”

223“Perhaps he has been following us.”

“But how could he do that unless he had an automobile or a motorcycle, or something like that?”

“I am sure I can’t answer that question.” Roger turned to the garage man. “Did you know the fellow at all?”

“No, boss; he was a stranger to me.”

“Have you ever seen him before?” asked Dave.

“Oh, I ain’t exactly sure of that, boss—so many men comin’ and goin’ all the time.”

“Let us see if he did any injury to the car,” suggested Roger.

The automobile was run out into the yard of the hotel, and there the young men went over the machine carefully. Nothing seemed to be amiss, and the things in the tonneau had been left undisturbed.

“I guess he didn’t have time enough to do anything,” said Dave. “I think he had been watching this man,” indicating the colored individual, “and as soon as he went into the hotel, the rascal sneaked into the garage intending to get the car out. Maybe he was nothing more than an auto thief who watched us come to the hotel and thought he saw a chance to get away with our car.”

“If he’s an auto thief, I wish I had caught 224him,” was the comment of the colored man.

“I think I’ll buy a lock for the car,” announced Dave. “I saw an automobile place down the street. We can stop there before we leave town.”

This was done; and the chums purchased a lock which could be placed on the gear shift, so that it would be impossible to start the car without unlocking the device or smashing it.

“By the turn of affairs, we’ve got to watch out for more than one kind of enemy,” announced Roger, when the search for clues to the mysterious disappearance of the two girls had again been resumed.

“I’ve got a new idea, Roger,” answered our hero slowly. “I may be mistaken, but somehow it strikes me that it would pay us to take a look around Chesleyville before we go farther. If that fellow was connected in any way with the kidnapping of Jessie and Laura, the girls may be held somewhere in this neighborhood.”

“That idea strikes me as a good one, Dave. Let us make a number of inquiries and find out if the gypsies were in this vicinity.”

The plan was carried out, the two youths spending the best part of a couple of hours both in the town and on the outskirts. The search in that vicinity, however, proved fruitless, and once again they set off on their trip along the line of the railroad.

225Before lunch time they had stopped at three more places, and at one of them gained the information that several gypsies had been seen in that vicinity about two weeks before. They had been men, and where they had gone nobody seemed to know.

Late that afternoon found the chums at a place known as Fallon’s Crossing. Here a small sideline crossed the main railroad, and here were located a switch shanty and a small freight yard. At this point it was said that the train which had carried Laura and Jessie had stopped for fully fifteen minutes, to let the hot box cool off and also to allow another train to pass. Just beyond Fallon’s Crossing was the thriving town of Crandall, at which the train was scheduled to make a regular stop.

The switchm............