“Who cares?” said Dolly. “If they can’t do any better there than they’ve done so far on this trip, we needn’t worry much, I guess.”
“Well, do you see what they were up to, now, Dolly?”
Dolly wrinkled her brows.
“I guess so,” she said. “They meant to come aboard the train at Canton and try to get hold of you and Zara. But I don’t see why—”
“Why they should pick out Canton rather than any other station where the trains stop along the line?”
“That’s just it, Bessie. Why should they?”
“That’s the whole point, Dolly. Look at this map. Do you see the state boundaries? For just a little way this line is in the state Canton is in—and Canton is in the same state as Hedgeville!”
“Oh!” gasped Dolly. “You were right, Bessie, I was stupid ! I might have thought of that! That’s why they had Jake there, and what his telegram was. But how clever of you to think of it! How did you ever guess it?”
“I just happened to think that if we did go into that state, it would be easy for them to get hold of Zara and me, if they only knew about it beforehand. Because, you see, in that state Farmer Weeks is legal guardian for both of us, and he could make us come with him if he caught us there.”
“Well, I think it was mighty clever of you. Of course, when you had the idea, it was easy to see it, once you had the map so that you could make sure. But I never would have thought of it, so I couldn’t have looked it up to make sure, because I wouldn’t have thought there was anything to look up.”