"Not a trace."
"Any word from the other towns?"
Detective Smuff shook his head.
"There was three different ways they could have gone," he said. "The Shore Road branches off into three roads and we've sent men out along every one of 'em and every inch of the highway has been searched. Them cars have just plain vanished."
"The police in the other towns didn't see them?"
"No reports at all."
"Perhaps they were taken right through Bayport and out the other side," Joe suggested.
"They weren't taken through Bayport. The cars were missed within five minutes after they were stolen and all the patrolmen were told about 'em and kept a lookout. There was nobody on the Shore Road side, so this is the only way they could have come without bein' stopped. That's what makes it so queer," went on Detective Smuff. "The police in the other towns was given word and they were waitin' for the cars if they came through, but they never showed up."
"Then the cars must be hidden somewhere along the Shore Road!" Frank exclaimed.
"Looks like it. But we've searched every inch of the ground, and there's no place they could be hid." Detective Smuff shook his head sadly. "It's a deep case. A deep case. Well, I'll do my best on it," he said, with the air of a martyr.