"Where are you going?"
"To call on some ladies," answered Jack, for he and Tom had planned to see Bessie and her mother.
They reached their own former stopping place, to which they had been sent by Major de Trouville, but when they inquired for the Gleasons the landlady, who remembered the boys, stared at them in surprise, and said:
"Why, Madam Gleason and her daughter are not here! They went out this morning to meet you, and have not come back!"
"To meet us?" gasped Jack.
"Yes, in answer to your note bidding them do so!"
CHAPTER XVII
SEEKING THE GUN
Tom and Jack gazed blankly at one another. The same thought was in the minds of both.