Above the purring of the motor Aunt Alvirah raised her voice to remark to the chums on the front seat:
“I don’t see it now—did it fall down?”
“Did what fall down, Aunty?” asked Ruth, who, though troubled as she was by her suspicions, could not ignore the little old woman.
“That scarecrow I see coming up. I thought ’twas a gal picking up stones in that field—the one this side of the hotel. It had a sunbonnet on, and it was just as natural! But it’s gone.”
“I don’t see any scarecrow there,” admitted Ruth, turning to look.
At that moment, however, the car she had seen parked in the bushes wheeled out into the highway ahead of them. It started on past the hotel. There was another figure beside that of the tubby Horatio Bilby on the seat. Ruth recognized Bilby at once.
“Who’s that?” asked Helen, slowing down involuntarily.
“That’s the man I spoke of,” explained Ruth, “I—I wonder who it is that’s with him?”
“A girl!” exclaimed Helen. “Do you suppose he has got Wonota?”
“Wonota—with a sunbonnet on?” cried her chum.