"How awful," said Polly. "I don't see what can have happened to her. You don't suppose any one thinks for a minute that she really has been kidnaped?"
"Her father does," said a man in the listening crowd. "I heard this morning he was going to have bills printed, offering a reward. There's Jim Collins now—I'll bet he is posting 'em."
The eyes of all followed the direction of his pointing finger. A man in overalls was pasting something on a telegraph pole across the road. With one accord, the crowd surged over to read the placard.
"It's offering one hundred dollars reward for information!" ran the quick whisper. "One hundred dollars for information that will lead to finding Ella Mooney. The Captain must be just about wild, for Ella is the apple of his eye."
Jubilant as the Riddle Club were over their success in the swimming matches, the news that Ella Mooney had disappeared saddened them and made them anxious. They knew that she had never spent a night away from home, and Polly, especially, could picture her vividly as lonely and frightened, perhaps held against her will by strange and cruel people who would demand a large sum of money for her return.
Little else was talked of that night, and the next morning Captain Mooney drove up in his car to the Meeker Cottage and asked if they had seen Ella the day she disappeared.
"She was so fond of you and she talked so much about the Riddle Club," the Captain said, "that I thought she might have ridden over to see you. I never knew her to leave the grounds without letting me know where she was going, but I had a conference that afternoon with several business men and I suppose Ella did not like to interrupt me."
Captain Mooney looked as though he had spent a sleepless night, and he went away as soon as he found that the Riddle Club could give him no news of his missing daughter. He did drink the coffee Mrs. Marley insisted on giving him, however, and he mentioned that he had heard of the three prizes won the day before. He said that Ella would be glad to know the Riddle Club had captured them.
"You wouldn't think he'd even remember any of us won a race, would you?" said Polly. "Every one says he is the kindest man. But what do you suppose can have happened to Ella?"