“Then, too, he’s interested in some kind of sport, I heard dad say. Yachting or motoring or something like that, I can’t just remember, and he’s likely to be off on a trip. Even his secretary doesn’t know where to find him sometimes, and when you stop to consider that the men who are working against my father have some interests in common with Mr. Jackson, and don’t want him to know of my father’s trouble, you can see that it’s going to be no easy proposition.”
“Wouldn’t a letter reach him?” inquired Bob, as he got ready to accompany his chums out of the house.
“We’ve tried letters and telegrams,” explained Ned. “None of them are any good. I heard dad say that sometimes letters follow Mr. Jackson half way around the globe, and even then he doesn’t get them. Oh, he’s a hard man to get in touch with!”
“But we’ll do it!” declared Jerry, when they were on their way to the department store.
Mr. Slade was both surprised and pleased when his son, and the latter’s two chums, came into the office, and Ned had explained the decision at which they had arrived.
“Boys!” exclaimed the merchant, “I don’t know how to thank you for your offer. I needn’t say that it is going to be quite a task, for Ned has explained what a peculiar man Mr. Jackson is, but I like your spirit. I knew you and Ned were quite chummy, and had been through lots of adventure together, but I never imagined that you’d prove a friend to the older folks in the family.
“It is certainly very good of you, and I appreciate it more than I can tell. I’m afraid, though, that it will break up your vacation plans.”
“Not at all,” Jerry assured Mr. Slade. “We may get more fun out of hunting for Mr. Jackson than you imagine. We’ll try for him in the auto, and if that doesn’t catch him we’ll get after him in the motor boat, and as a last resort——”
“The airship, with the new hydroplane feature!” put in Ned with a laugh.