“It’s possible,” assented Belle. “Anything is possible for Jack and Wally. But if they came here they must have left their car near by. Turn about is fair play – let’s annex theirs.”
“Let’s find it first,” said Cora.
They hurried out to the road. A quick look up and down showed no automobile in sight – not even Cora’s.
“They must have speeded up,” murmured Belle. “Oh! why weren’t we quicker?”
“It doesn’t amount to anything if those young men were really Jack and Walter,” Cora said. “But we can’t be sure of that; can we, Belle?”
“No, I can’t. I only had a glimpse of their backs, and all backs look alike to me.”
“It can’t have been Jack,” declared Bess, “or his car would be somewhere in sight. He wouldn’t know we were in the tea room until he came up close, and then there wouldn’t have been time to run his car back.”
“You can’t tell what they would do,” said Cora. “Come on, we’ll walk as far as the turn in the road, and see what’s down there.”
“Hadn’t you better report your loss to the proprietor of the tea room?” suggested Belle. “He might send a man out to look for the machine.”
“I don’t want to make too much fuss if it was Jack and Walter,” Cora objected. “Let’s take a look ourselves first.”
The girls hurried down the road, all their drowsiness gone now. They were rather alarmed in spite of the cool way in which Cora took it.
“It’s dreadfully warm walking,” complained Bess. “I shall have to have more cream after this is over.”
“You can go back and wait for us,” suggested Cora, “if you’re too – ”
“Don’t dare say I’m too stout to keep on the trail!” cried Bess. “I’ll never give up!”
They were almost at the turn when the honking of an automobile horn warned them of the approach of a car.
“There they come back!” cried Belle, in relieved tones.
But a moment later, as a machine swung into view around the curve, the girls saw that it was not Cora’s.
“But it’s Jack and Walter!” cried the former’s sister. “Wait! Stop!” she begged. “Jack – Wally – we’re in trouble! Did you take our car?”
“Take your car?” repeated Jack, bringing his machine to a stop with a screeching of brakes. “What’s the joke?”
“It isn’t a joke at all!” declared Belle. “I saw two young men making off with Cora’s car. At first we thought it might be you and Wally.”
“Not guilty!” affirmed the latter, holding up a protesting hand.
“Where did all this happen?” Jack wanted to know.
“At the Spinning Wheel tea room. We stopped there,” his sister informed him.
“Which way did they go?” asked Walter Pennington.
“Down this way,” Belle said, explaining what she had seen, and how they had come along the road thinking to meet the perpetrators of the joke.
“Come on, Wally!” cried Jack. “We’ll get after those fellows. It may have been a joke, and, again, it may not. No use taking any chances. There have been several cars stolen around here lately. Maybe there’s a regular organized gang. Go on back to your tea and cakes, girls. We’ll round up the villains. Ha! Ha!” and he struck a theatrical attitude.
“We’ll wait at the tea room for you,” Cora said. “You can trace my car in the dust, Jack, by the tire-marks. There’s a big patch, where it was vulcanized. It’s on the right forward wheel, and it makes a mark like a big Z. Look for it.”
“I will, Sis. But there isn’t much chance. Too many cars pass along this road to let the dust-marks of any particular one stay in sight long. But we’ll do the best we can.”
Jack backed and turned his car around, and was soon off down the road in a clatter of exhausts, while the three girls went back to Ye Olde Spinning Wheel.
“Who do you suppose they could be – those two fellows?” asked Bess.
“Haven’t the least idea,” her sister assured her.
“It couldn’t have been Paul Hastings, could it?”
“Of course not!” declared Cora. “Paul isn’t given to playing such jokes. Besides, he’s in the auto business you know, and he doesn’t believe in taking chances with the cars of others. It may be a joke, as Jack says, and some of our numerous friends may have tried to scare us, or it may be – ”
“Don’t say your lovely car is really stolen!” interrupted Bess, impulsively.
“Well, I’d have to say it if it were,” declared the practical Cora. “And the sooner we find out the better, in order to get the police after the thieves.”
Wearily they trudged back to the tea room, which they had left so suddenly.
“Let’s have some more ice cream while we’re waiting,” suggested Bess.
They had nearly finished their second plates when the honking of a horn warned them of the approach of some one. Eagerly they looked out to see Jack and Walter returning.
“We lost the trail!” Jack called. “I saw the tire marks, Cora, for a little way, then they disappeared. We’ll have to notify the police. Your car’s stolen all right.”
“Oh, Jack!”
“Might as well realize it first as last, Sis! Where’s a telephone?” he asked the waitress.
CHAPTER III – TWO STRANGE MEN
“What are you going to do, Jack?” asked Cora.
“Notify the Chelton police, and also the authorities here. They will send out a general alarm better than we can. Now who saw these chaps, and how did they look?”
“Belle saw them.”
“Then, Belle, I’ll have to call on your detective abilities. Describe these villainous characters.”
“I wouldn’t call them particularly villainous looking,” said the tall girl. “In fact we thought for a time it was you two, and – ”
“I see,” interrupted Walter. “Belle, I thank you for your good opinion.”
“Come on, get down to business!” exclaimed Jack Kimball. “I want to know how these fellows looked so I can tell the police. Were they young or old?”
“Two young men,” answered Belle. “They were about your age, Jack.”
“But, unfortunately, they did not have his angelic disposition,” mocked Walter. “Bouquets are coming your way fast, Jack.”
“I’ll dispense with them. Come on now, Belle. Anything else except that they were young?”
Belle thought for a moment. She had had such a momentary glimpse of the two that, really, it was hard to describe them adequately for the purposes of police detection.
“Why not describe the car?” asked Cora. “No matter who is in my machine they haven’t a right to it, and they should be arrested on sight.”
“Good idea!” agreed Jack. “I can describe the car right enough.”
“And give the license numbers,” said Bess.
“Of course. Good girl. Let me have them, Cora.”
They were the only ones in the tea room at this time, and the excitement was only communicated to the