"Ted Mackay?" he repeated, as if he could not believe his ears.
"Yes."
"Then how do you explain it? That couldn't have been Mackay we met on that field—Mackay disguised, or anything?"
"No. He wasn't tall enough. And he had black hair. Oh, Ralph, I'm sure of that!"
"Then how do you explain it?"
"I don't explain it," she said weakly.
He said nothing more, but he knew that she was not only terribly disappointed in not being able to trace the necklace, but that she was entertaining grave doubts about Mackay's part in the whole miserable affair. Were he and this thief in partnership, playing a wicked game, and had Ted hired the man because he would not let them know his part in the robbery?
But there was no use talking about that now, for Ralph realized that Linda was almost ready to collapse. Drawing her arm through his, he led her silently back to the Pursuit, and put her into the cockpit, indicating that he would pilot them back to Green Falls. Not a word did she utter during the entire flight homeward; she drooped listlessly back in her seat, with an expression of disappointment and despair on her face. How she wished that she had not come!
No one was waiting for them at the airport, so they took a taxi to Miss Carlton's bungalow. They found the latter on the porch, with only Kitty and Maurice beside her.