She had just donned calico frock, plaid shawl and sunbonnet when up rushed Hal in a state of wild excitement. “Seen anything of Pablo?” he panted.
Joanne paused in the act of tying her bonnet strings. “Why, no. I thought he was coming with you.”
“Just what I thought. We started out together. Pablo was riding Chico. I told him to follow me. We were almost here when I looked around and not a sign of either Pablo or Chico. The show can’t go on without them, and lots of people are already here. It’s two o’clock.” Hal clutched his hair wildly.
Joanne looked dumbfounded. “How perfectly awful!” she exclaimed. All sorts of fancies took possession of her. Suppose Pablo had suddenly taken it into his head to run away with Chico. Suppose a motor car had run into him. Suppose! Suppose! “What in the world do you suppose has happened to them?” she said helplessly.
“Don’t I wish I knew? It’s like magic. I looked around and there they were. I looked around again and there they were not. I’m wild. I don’t know what to do.”
“Did you go back?”
“Of course. We were near a corner. I looked up and down both streets but they had vanished utterly.”
“There was no crowd as if there had been an accident?”
“Nothing unusual.”
“It is the most mysterious thing I ever knew,” declared Joanne, joining Hal who was starting back toward the dressing tent. “It makes me fairly ill.”