It was an easy matter to run the car a hundred feet or so beyond the side road. Here the trees were slightly scattered, and they had little difficulty in bringing the machine to a halt in the midst of them at a place where there were a few bushes. Then Dave took out the spark plug from the dashboard and placed it in his pocket.

“I don’t believe anybody will bother that car,” he said.

“Perhaps we won’t be gone very long anyhow, Dave. This may prove to be a blind road leading to nothing.”

They pushed on side by side. As it was very warm they had discarded their dust-coats and their goggles. Each had seen to it that his pistol was ready for use, for there was no telling what might confront them.

A little farther on the road took a turn, and here became so stony that the tracks made by the wheels of the car they were following were completely lost. But as there was no place where the machine might have turned around, they felt certain it had gone on.

268“We had better keep quiet from now on, Roger,” said our hero in a low voice. “And keep your ears and eyes wide open.”

Two hundred feet more were passed and then Dave came to a halt, at the same time clutching his chum by the arm. From ahead they heard footsteps coming down the rocky roadway. Both made a bound, and crouched behind some trees and brushwood. The approaching person, whoever he was, came closer; and presently the two youths saw that he was a middle-aged man dressed in the garb of a gypsy.

“I’ve seen that fellow before! He is one of the gypsies who used to hang around the outskirts of Crumville!” whispered Dave excitedly.

“Then he must be one of the chaps who ran off with Laura and Jessie!” returned the senator’s son. “What shall we do?”

“Wait a minute. We want to make sure that he is alone.”

They waited until the gypsy had passed them and gone on a distance of a hundred feet or more. He was evidently alone.

“Maybe we had better let him go,” whispered Roger. “That will make one less to tackle, if the others are ahead of us.”

“He’s not going to get away,” answered Dave decidedly. “We may not meet the others at all, and in that case we’d be very foolish to let this 269fellow get out of our clutches. Come on! I’m going to make him a prisoner!”

Making as little noise as possible, our hero went after the gypsy, who had now passed a turn in the road and was out of sight. The senator’s son followed, and soon both came up behind the fellow ahead.

The gypsy was taken completely by surprise. He had seated himself on a rock to fix one of his shoes, and before he could regain his feet both of the young civil engineers had him covered with their weapons.

“Throw up your hands and keep quiet,” demanded Dave sternly.

“Yes, don’t you dare to cry out,” added Roger. “If you do, you’ll get shot.”

“What is this? For why do you stop me like this?” stammered the gypsy. He was a tall, swarthy-looking fellow, with anything but a cheerful countenance.

“You know well enough why we have stopped you,” returned Dave. “What have you done with those two young ladies who belong in Crumville?”

“I know not’ing of any young ladies,” grumbled the gypsy. “You make big mistake.”

“You do know!” cried Roger. “Now tell us the truth! Have you hurt those young ladies?”

“I know not’ing,” was all the gypsy replied. 270And, try their best, that was about all the two chums could get out of him.

Had the man not been covered by the pistols he would undoubtedly have shown fight, but he was too cowardly to attempt anything under the existing circumstances.

Not knowing what else to do with their prisoner, the two youths marched him down the road and to where they had left the automobile. Here they brought out a strong rope, and with this bound the gypsy’s hands and feet and tied him fast to one of the trees.

“I guess he’ll stay there until we get back,” was Dave’s comment. “Now then, are you going to tell us what became of those young ladies or not?” he questioned. But to this the gypsy merely shook his head and muttered something which neither of the young civil engineers could understand.

“I don’t believe that fellow is altogether right in his mind,” said Roger.

“Either that, Roger, or else he is shamming,” answered Dave. But Roger was right, the fellow was not more than half-witted.

Leaving their prisoner, the two chums lost no time in making their way along the side-road once more. They soon passed the point where they had first caught sight of the gypsy. Here the roadway became fairly good for a distance of 271several hundred feet, but beyond this were a number of large rocks, and the road seemed to come to an end in a mass of brushwood.

“Let us look around for wheel-tracks, Roger,” said Dave in a low voice.

Both began an eager search, and were soon rewarded by seeing where the touring-car they were following had left the mountain road and passed in among some trees and bushes on the right. Close at hand was a spring of water, and beyond this the remains of a tumbled-down barn.

“I see the car!” whispered Dave, and pointed to the machine, which rested behind some rocks and brushwood. One glance at the automobile showed that it was deserted.

“They can’t be very far off,” said Roger in a low voice. “Dave, what do you think we had better do next?”

“Let us get behind the trees and bushes and reconnoiter,” was the answer. “Be very careful, Roger, so that you don’t expose yourself. We don’t want to tumble into a hornet’s nest.”

“Don’t you think we had better go back to town and get help, or wait until your Uncle Dunston arrives?”

“Maybe we’ll have to do that. But I want to discover where the girls are first, if I possibly can.”

With extreme caution the young men moved 272along behind the trees. They saw that from the dilapidated barn a trai............