The Corner House Girls on a Tour

“You wonder what, Mrs. Heard?” asked Ruth.

“I wonder what became of those maps and things that Philly was so careful of. If they were in the car – ”

“Then Saleratus Joe got ’em,” said Neale promptly.

“No. I don’t believe the politicians who instigated the robbery have obtained what they hoped to find in this car. I – wonder – where – they – are.”

“Not in the gasoline tank, that’s sure,” said Neale. “I looked in it.”

They all laughed at that, and Mrs. Heard abandoned the puzzling subject.

There was nothing to do of importance but to wait for the message from the automobile factory. Neale tried out the car that had been stolen from Mrs. Heard’s nephew and Mrs. Heard herself enjoyed a ride in it. It was a very good car indeed, and beautifully upholstered.

“I know Philly told me he had this car built according to his own plans, and I’ve wondered since if he didn’t have a place built in it in which to hide his private papers,” Mrs. Heard said. “It would be just like him.”

“Oh! wouldn’t that be great?” cried Agnes.

“And then maybe the maps and things are in the car,” Ruth said.

“Who knows? I am quite confident, because of what my nephew said, that the bundle the thieves got in the car was worthless. I remember his saying: ’Those rascals won’t get what they want unless they tear my car to pieces.’ Now, what could he have meant by that?”

The problem interested the older Corner House girls and Neale very much. Agnes examined the upholstering and the panel-work of the runabout very closely.

“Perhaps Saleratus Joe did find the papers. That’s why the car was abandoned here,” she said to Neale, with a sigh.

“Well, if they found the secret panel,” said the boy, grinning, “they didn’t leave it open so we could find it, did they?”

“You needn’t make fun,” said Agnes. “If I find the papers I won’t tell you – so now!”

“Help yourself,” he returned. “I’m not half so much interested in Mr. Collinger’s affairs as I am in our own car. I hope the factory hustles that casting right along.”

They could not expect it yet, and the remainder of the day was spent in roaming about the farm. The children found the biggest huckleberry pasture any of them had ever seen. Mrs. Heard’s housewifely desires were spurred.

“I do wish these berries were near Milton,” she declared. “I’d can enough of them to last the winter through for huckleberry pies.”

They were getting supper, Gypsy fashion, when the lanky boy with the pony drove up with the answers to the telegrams Neale had sent that morning from the Hickton station.

“Hurrah!” shouted Neale, the moment he read his message. “The thing is already shipped. When does the first train from the south stop at Hickton in the morning?” he asked the messenger.

“Eight-thirty,” was the reply.

“It will be on that. I’ll run over in Mr. Collinger’s car and get it.”

“And Philly says he’ll come up here some time to-morrow, too,” announced Mrs. Heard. “We sha’n’t have to live in a barn but one night more.”

“Oh, say!” drawled the country lad. “Old man Higgins says you kin stay here as long as ye want to, if ye don’t burn up the rest o’ the buildings.”

CHAPTER XXIV – SOMETHING REALLY EXCITING

A very red-faced sun awoke the touring party the next morning, his first rays shooting directly into the broad doorway of the barn – an intruder that Tom Jonah, faithful watchman as he was, could not keep out. The sunshine shone directly into the eyes of the Corner House girls and their friends.

All were quickly astir. They expected to be on their way again before night; and although roughing it had been fun, there were some drawbacks to it.

“We’ll sleep in regular beds again to-night,” Agnes said, with some satisfaction.

“But I don’t believe it will be half so nice,” Tess observed. “This hay is so sweet and smelly.”

“Now, Sammy Pinkney!” cried Dot, suddenly spying that youngster in mischief, “don’t pull that nice pussy’s tail. It hurts her.”

“Ain’t pulling her tail,” replied Sammy promptly. “I’m only holding her tail. The cat’s doing all the pulling.”

Agnes bore down upon him and he immediately ceased holding poor pussy’s tail.

“Say! you’re awful particular,” complained the boy. “I wasn’t really hurting the old cat, Aggie. And – and it ain’t polite to always be interferin’ with a feller.”

“Now you’ve got it, Aggie,” chuckled Neale O’Neil. “You see you’re not polite. And politeness costs nothing.”

“Oh! doesn’t it?” returned Agnes. “Suppose you’d put ‘very respectfully yours’ at the end of that telegram you sent to the auto factory? I guess you’d have found it cost something.”

“Stung again!” admitted Neale.

“Why, what is all this I hear?” demanded Ruth, coming up from the horse trough pump bearing a brimming pail of water. “Did somebody get out of bed on the wrong side this bright and beautiful morning?”

“It was the cat,” said Neale, in a sepulchral voice. “She started it.”

“Which side is the wrong side of a hay-mow bed, Ruthie?” Tess asked.

“That’s a poser,” Neale said. “You’ll have to ask somebody else about that, eh, Ruth? Now, hustle along the breakfast, you girls, for I must start for Hickton.”

“And I’m going with you, Neale,” Agnes declared. “You can speed up that runabout as fast as you want to. The others won’t be along to object.”

This last remark she whispered in Neale’s ear.

“I tell you, Aggie, you’re a speed maniac,” responded Neale. “But if Mrs. Heard says you may go off alone with me, all right.”

Agnes had learned by this time to wheedle the good-natured chaperone into agreeing to almost anything the girls desired; and of course she had no objection to Agnes’ going anywhere with Neale. Whether the Corner House girls realized it or not, they could not have had a brother any more careful for them or better to them than Neale O’Neil.

So the girl and boy chums were on the road in the runabout soon after eight. Mr. Collinger’s was a good machine, and it ran smoothly. But Agnes suddenly had an unhappy thought.

“Oh, Neale!” she said, clasping her hands.

“Shoot!” advised the boy, with his eyes on the road ahead.

“We’re riding in a stolen car.”

“Sure we are. What of it?”

“And all the constables and sheriffs and policemen all over the State have the description of this car and her license number. What are you going to do if an officer holds us up?”