Part 10 (1/2)

”Why, it's your friend, the tramp. Probably he's the man who has been hanging around the place for several days and when his opportunity came he took it.”

”Which do you mean, the opportunity, or the car?” laughed Fred.

”Both. His opportunity was to take the car.”

”That tramp,” declared Fred solemnly, ”didn't have strength enough about him to push the b.u.t.ton to turn on the power.”

”That's something you don't know,” retorted his friend. ”I think when you are through with it you'll find that the car disappeared at the same time the tramp did. No one has seen him since,” added Grant, positively.

”And from all I can learn,” retorted Fred, ”n.o.body saw him before except myself, so you haven't run down your problem yet.”

When the boys arrived at the Corners, as the little nearby hamlet was called, they made many inquiries of the people they met, but no word concerning the missing car was heard. There were several suggestions from the country people that other cars had been lost within the past few weeks, but none of them was able to add to the information which the boys already possessed.

Disappointed by their failures, George at last said, ”I think the best thing for us to do will be to go back home. I'll call up my father on the 'phone and if he isn't coming out pretty soon he will tell me what to do.”

In response to George's suggestion the boys once more clambered into the car and in a brief time were noisily speeding over the road on their way back to their friend's house.

”We've got two mysteries now,” suggested George.

”Three you mean,” spoke up Fred quickly.

”We've got the mystery of the lost car and the mystery of the old Meeker House. That makes two. I don't see where your third comes in.”

”The third is our mysterious friend, the tramp, that I saw in the old Meeker House.”

”What's the mystery about him?” laughed George. ”I don't find anything very mysterious about an unwashed tramp you found in the old house. Very likely he had crawled in there to sleep and you waked him up.”

”He was awake all right,” declared Fred promptly. ”There isn't any question about that. He wasn't moving around as fast as I have seen some, but he didn't take it all out in motions, either.”

”It seems to me,” laughed Grant, ”that you find in that tramp whatever you want to find, Fred. First you say he's one kind of man and then you tell us he's another.”

”Wait until you see him,” said Fred sagely. ”Maybe he's in the old house now. It can't be far ahead.”

”Not more than a quarter of a mile,” suggested Grant.

For some reason the boys became silent as the car speeded forward in the dim light. The eyes of every one were turned toward the old house which had perplexed them in so many ways.

As they came near the corner John said in a low voice, ”There's not only a ghost of a man in that house, but there's the ghost of the automobile.

Do you hear that horn?”

All the boys listened intently and to their consternation the faint sound of a horn was heard, issuing from the old house.

”What do you suppose that means?” demanded Fred in a whisper.

”I told you there was the ghost of an automobile in that house, didn't I?” demanded John.

”Look yonder,” called Grant quickly. ”There's that light again in the cellar. Don't you think we had better stop and find out what all this means?”