Part 22 (1/2)

”It's a pity you didn't do as well with the car,” said Grant.

”Well, the tramp and I went up into the orchard together. We were together all the while we were there and we came back together. When we got back here we saw that the car was gone. The tramp was here. Now will you please tell me how a tramp could steal an automobile and still be with me all the while?”

”What do you think is the best thing for us to do?” said George, turning to the mechanic.

”Your car isn't here,” said the man, ”and you could track it a little way, far enough to see that it was taken in that direction,” he explained as he pointed ahead of him. ”Now that's right on the way back to the garage and my advice is for all four of you to get into the car and we'll see what we can find on the way back. If you don't find anything we can telephone when you get into the village, or you can leave on the train. There's one out in about an hour and a half.”

The suggestion finally was adopted and all four boys maintained a careful outlook for the missing car throughout their ride to the garage.

However no trace of the missing automobile was discovered. The car had disappeared and the boys were stranded in a little village in northern New Jersey.

Leaving his companions, George telephoned his father. The conversation lasted several minutes and when at last George rejoined his friends he said glumly, ”My father says the best thing for us to do is to come home by train. He told us to look out and not lose the train.”

”I guess,” laughed Grant, ”it would be a little more expensive for him if we should lose the train than to have us lose the cars.”

”If we keep this up much longer,” said Fred, ”we'll have a good big bill to pay. I never knew anybody in my life that ever had a car stolen and here we lose two inside of a week.”

”You must remember,” said John soberly, ”that we are the Go Ahead boys.

It doesn't make any difference what we start in we have got to leave the rest of them behind us. If it's looking for smugglers or digging for a pirate's chest or having our automobiles stolen, it doesn't make a particle of difference which, we are bound to go ahead, get ahead and keep ahead.”

”I'm glad to hear you talk that way,” said George grimly. ”I have been looking in my pockets to see if I have money enough to get a ticket home. Have any of you got money?”

”I'll take up a collection,” suggested John, seizing his cap as he spoke. The result of his efforts, however, when the sum was counted, was not quite sufficient to purchase the tickets required by the four boys on their return trip.

”I don't see anything for us to do,” said Fred glibly, ”except to leave String here. He's the one who is responsible for the loss of the car to-day and if anybody has to stay behind I think he ought to be the one.”

”I agree with you,” said John meekly. ”I'm willing to stay, for I confess I would like to find out what has become of that lost car.”

CHAPTER XVIII-THE ARRIVAL

In spite of the protests of the other boys against John being left behind, it was finally decided that he should carry out his own plan. He had declared his purpose to find out if possible what had become of the second car.

George had insisted that all four of the Go Ahead boys either should remain together or depart in a body; but after a brief conversation in which John explained that he really was desirous of making some further investigations of his own and also that it was equally important for George to get into touch with his father, as he could not do over the telephone, it was agreed that John should remain until the following day. A very attractive hotel not far from the station was most inviting.

There John explained he would remain until the following day when the boys either would come for him or send him money.

Only a few moments elapsed before the noisy train proclaimed its coming.

The scream of the locomotive was echoed and re-echoed in the nearby valley and long before its arrival at the station the people of the little village were aware that the one o'clock train was ”on time.”

Again George protested strongly against John being left behind, although he did not explain how he was to ride on the train without a ticket nor how he was to obtain a ticket without any money. However, in a few minutes the three departing boys, standing on the rear platform of the last car, were waving their hats as they bade good-by to the fourth member of the Go Ahead boys who was watching them from the platform of the station.

Slowly John turned into the walk that led him from the little station to the main street of the village. As he came out upon the sidewalk he was startled when he heard himself addressed by his own name. Surprised, he glanced in the direction from which the unexpected hail had come and he was amazed to behold the tramp, who had been his companion in the morning, now seated in the missing automobile. Evidently he had been driving the car but the expression on his face as John ran toward him did not indicate his purpose to explain the sight which had so startled him.

”Where did you get that car?” demanded John sharply as he stared at the driver.

”I found it at the other garage,” explained the tramp.

”How did it get there?”