"Only one mile more!" cried Sam.
"It won't take long to cover that," answered Tom, and then turned on the power, and in less than two minutes more they were approaching the center of Riverview, a fair-sized town located on the stream which gave it its name.
"There is the auto-stage, drawn up in front of the hotel," announced Sam.
"Yes. And it's empty," answered Dick.
The driver of the auto-stage was at the town pump getting a drink of water. He looked at the three Rovers curiously as they confronted him.
"Did I have a passenger that stuttered?" he repeated in answer to their question. "I sure did have such a fellow. Why, he stuttered wo'se than any man I ever heard. And he whistled too. Awful funny. Why, I had all I could do to keep from laughin' in his face."
"We want to find that man very much and right away," announced Dick. "Will you let us know where you let him off?"
"That's a funny thing, mister," announced the auto-stage driver. "You see, after we left Stockbridge I didn't have nobody in but that man. He paid me the fare to this place before I started. Then when we was about half-way here I looked around in the back of the stage and, by gum! he was gone."
"Gone!" came from the three Rovers.
"Yes, sir, he was gone. I looked back and there he stood on the side of the road. As soon as he saw that I saw him, he waved his hand to me and disappeared."