"Didn't he send any word?" questioned Sam.
"None that I received."
"He said he was going straight home would telephone from Lockville for the carriage to meet the last train," said Tom. "This is mighty queer."
It was queer and for the moment the Rover boys and their uncle stared blankly at one another.
"Something is wrong," declared Dick, presently. "And I am going to make it my business to find out at once what it is."
CHAPTER II
AN IMPORTANT TELEGRAM
Dick Rover would not have been so much disturbed by his father's disappearance had it not been for one thing, which was that Mr. Rover, on leaving the closing exercises at Putnam Hall, had declared that he would take the last train home that night. This train got into Oak Run at one o'clock in the morning, when the station was closed and the platform usually deserted.
"Let us ask around and see if anybody was here when the train came in," suggested Tom.
They first appealed to Mr. Ricks, the station master, an old and crabbed individual, who disliked the boys for the jokes they had played on him in times past. He shook his head at once.