“Dinner! Good gracious! Here it is nearly noon!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, looking at his watch. “Well, we can get a lunch here while waiting for an answer to my telegram. And I guess I’d better telephone your mother to let her know we shall be delayed. This is the first chance I’ve had to get on the trail of the strange old woman, and I don’t want to miss it.”
Mr. Bobbsey sent a telegram to Miles Junction for Jerry Simpson, conductor of the train, asking him to wire back the name and address of the old woman in the faded shawl. She did not have the green umbrella with her this time, and of course the big basket, in which Baby May had been left, was at the Bobbsey home.
In his telegram Mr. Bobbsey asked the conductor to send word back in care of the train dispatcher at Menton. This having been done, the twins’ father began to make inquiries of railroad men and others about the strange woman.
None of them knew her, and few of them had noticed her coming to the station to take the train. So his questions did not bring him much information.
“We must wait for an answer to the telegram,” said Mr. Bobbsey.
“And can we eat now?” asked Bert. “I’m mighty hungry.”
“I’m hungry, too,” added Nan.
“You certainly shall eat!” laughed their father, and he took them to a restaurant.
They had to wait nearly an hour for the answer to come back from the conductor, as the Miles Junction stop of the train was many miles away. But finally, as the three sat in the station, waiting, the train dispatcher came out of his little office, where a hundred clocks seemed ticking. In his hand he held a paper.
“Are you Mr. Bobbsey?” he asked.