So Alice had no chance to do as she had said she would.
"There he goes!" she exclaimed.
"So I see," responded Ruth with a sigh of relief. "Oh, I'm so glad!"
"I'm not!" declared Alice, and she really thought she meant it. Perhaps she did.
"Oh, Alice!" exclaimed Ruth. "Suppose he had kept on?"
"Just what I wanted him to do. There's nothing very harmful in one man, particularly as there are two of us, and we are so near the house, and on a public road. Oh, it was the best chance we've yet had of finding out who he is, and what he wants around here. And he had to go and—spoil it!" Alice acted as though really grieved.
"We had better go back and tell Sandy or his father," suggested Ruth. "They may want to chase him."
"Not much chance of catching him," replied Alice, ruefully. "See him go, even if he is lame." The man was really making rapid progress down the road in spite of his halting gait. "But come on," Alice resumed, "we'll tell the men, and they can do as they like."
The two sisters hurried back to the farmhouse, and the message they delivered caused some excitement. For all were more or less interested in the mysterious man.
Sandy, Russ and Paul at once hurried out, and went in the direction where Alice and Ruth had last seen the man. The girls, including Miss Pennington and Miss Dixon, also went out to see what success should attend the efforts of the young men. But it was the same as before—there was no sign of the man. This was not strange, though, considering that he might have slipped off at either side of the road, and gone into hiding in the fields, or in a patch of woodland nearby.