“I think I can begin to figure this out, Roger,” said Dave slowly. “It looks to me as if Jessie and Laura were being held prisoners somewhere in this vicinity, and that that fellow who ran the car, whoever he is, came down here to buy supplies for the crowd.”
“Yes. And do you remember what the storekeeper said about the clothes-line and a lock and nails? More than likely they’ve got the poor girls tied fast in some room, and they have put a new lock on the door and nailed up the windows.”
“What you say would fit in very well with what the storekeeper told us. If that rascal came here to get his supplies, it would seem to indicate that the place where the girls are being kept prisoners must be somewhere in this vicinity.”
“Yes, unless they did not dare to go to any town that was closer by. For all we know, he may have come from twenty or thirty miles away—or even farther than that.”
“Well, we’re on the right trail, anyway, and that’s something,” returned Dave hopefully. Then he gave a sudden exclamation. “My gracious! Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Think of what, Dave?”
“Don’t you remember what the storekeeper said about that fellow purchasing some cigarettes?”
“What of it?”
“Why, just this: One of the things that fastened the crime on Jasniff and Merwell at the time Mr. Wadsworth’s jewelry factory was robbed was the fact that both of those rascals were inveterate cigarette smokers, and smoked a certain brand of Turkish cigarettes—a kind that had a peculiar gold and blue band around the box. I’m going back and ask that storekeeper what kind of cigarettes that fellow got.”
And so speaking Dave made a sharp turn and brought the car around, and in a moment more was on his way back to the store.