For a week or more the "Ark" traveled on. Every time he got a chance Mr. Brown asked about Fred, in the different towns through which they passed, but could get no trace of the missing boy.
They saw other medicine showmen who had with them players or singers, but none of them were at all like the runaway Fred.
"It must have been he who was with Dr. Perry," said Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, and I presume he feared we knew him and so he ran on farther," her husband added. "He may be in Portland now."
"How soon shall we be there?" asked Bunny.
"In a few more days now."
Two days later, as they camped outside a little village for the night, they saw beside the road a signboard which read:
TWENTY MILES TO PORTLAND
"Oh, we'll be there to-morrow!" cried Bunny. "Then we can find Fred, and can send him to his mamma and papa!"