“He’ll be all right,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. “And I may need him to help me. We sha’n’t travel quite all night. If we get too far away to return by, say, eleven o’clock, we’ll stay at a hotel all night. Don’t worry, Mother!”
He kissed his wife good-bye, and kissed Nan, Flossie and Freddie.
“I’ll bring back Baby May!” said Bert firmly, as he, too, kissed his mother.
“I’m sure I hope so,” murmured Mrs. Bobbsey.
Mr. Bobbsey and Bert took the “down road,” as it was called, leading to the city of Millville, though the city itself was several miles away. However, there were small towns and villages in between, and it was thought that some news might be obtained in one of these of the old woman and Baby May.
“Maybe she might go off into the woods and camp there, like a gypsy,” suggested Bert, as he and his father started off in the automobile.
“No, I hardly think so,” replied Mr. Bobbsey. “A little baby like May would not fare very well if kept out all night in a camp in the woods—that is, unless the woman had a tent, and I don’t believe she has that.”
“But where has she been staying all the while she’s been spying on us and trying to get the baby back?” asked Bert.
“That’s what I can’t find out,” said his father. “She must have lived somewhere around here, and yet we can’t get a trace of her. If she boarded with any of the farmers we would have heard about it.”
“Maybe she found an old hut or cabin, and is staying in that,” said Bert.