And she offered her plump hand, which was cordially shaken as the boys explained more about their folks, then added:
“My name now is Ewing. I’m known as the Widow Ewing round here. My husband has been dead three years or so. Before that, in Lannington, I was a McKnight. One of my brothers runs a garage there. Know him?”
“Well, rather! Hey, Phil? We got this car mainly through his aid. McKnight & Wilder—they’re some punkins when it comes to automobiles!”
After this all was plain sailing for the boys. Mrs. Ewing insisted that they should remain until the morrow.
“Won’t cost you much. We’ll cut the regular bill in half, for you’re home folks, aren’t you?”
And it may be said that she had her way. The Big Six was put in the hotel garage and the boys were made comfortable in two adjoining rooms; and in the morning even Phil was astonished at the exceedingly small bill which they had to pay. He could only thank the comely widow, who laughed it off with:
“If you boys are simply on a vacation trip, you’re bound to spend more than you think you will. I’d gladly keep you for nothing, but times are hard and I have to make some charge.”
Cautious inquiries by Phil resulted in learning that there had been, and still might be further on an old inn of the pre-railroad days. But it was off the main road, in the roughest, heaviest wooded section, somewhere about eight or ten miles off to the east. That region, it appeared, was poor, swampy, and so inferior to other land lying all about that hardly anyone lived there, even though in the midst of a thickly settled country.
In the privacy of their rooms the four lads concluded that they would say nothing directly referring to the railroad robbery or the hiding of supposed treasure. They were so near the scene that any revival of that now old-time tragedy might cause annoying inquisitiveness even if nothing more resulted.
After breakfast, while the boys were making a few purchases and taking on a generous supply of gasoline, they learned from Mrs. Ewing that “Dan and Nan, with their Daddy, old Pat Feeney,” had just gone by.