“I am not so fond of going off miles away by myself and then walking back as to do a thing of that sort willingly, Dick,” laughed Jack. “I was run away with, abducted, kept a prisoner, released by a man who has been a prisoner himself, walked for miles through the mountain passes, stayed with a hermit and his dog and finally got back here just in time. Did you get your car?”
“Yes, and that’s what worried us for we did not know what had become of you. Tell me all about it?”
“There is not time,” with a laugh, “but I will tell you some things. You remember the man with the white mustache?”
“He was up in the mountains where my captors took me and it was he who got me free and afterward left me, going I know not where. I told you I would tell you who he is one day.”
“Yes, so you did but if you don’t like to——”
“I don’t mind telling you, Dick. The man is my stepfather and you can easily see why I was agitated when I heard that he was about and then when I met him. He has been in prison for a number of years and then my mother was happy, safe and comfortable. His being free again made me worry for I hoped that he never would trouble us again.”
“So you would.”
“Now he has gone I don’t know where and we need not say any more or think any more about him.”
“But who ran off with you, Jack, and why?”