“I’ll know that old woman again, if I see her!” exclaimed Bert.
“And I’ll know Baby May,” added his father.
“Oh, can’t I go with you?” begged Nan, as her father and brother were about to start off again.
“You might take her with you,” suggested Mrs. Bobbsey. “If you do get Baby May back Nan can take care of her.”
So Nan was allowed to go. Flossie and Freddie cried and begged to go also, but this was not permitted. However, their mother promised to take them on a picnic to pass the time until the others should return.
Constable Jim Denton proved to be a good detective. He had finally got trace of the old woman carrying the baby, and he found that, as had been thought, she had been given a ride—a “lift,” the constable called it—by a kind farmer.
“He left her in Cardley, and she said she was going to stay there all night,” Mr. Denton explained.
Mr. Bobbsey made good speed to Cardley and found the constable there waiting for him.
“Where is the old woman?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, as he met the constable at the village hotel.
“She’s stopping at a farmhouse just outside the town,” he said. “I located her, but I didn’t want to make any move to arrest her, for fear she’d get excited and maybe hurt the baby, or steal off again. She’s pretty well tired out, from what I hear, and I guess it will be an easy matter to catch her.”