Then it was Tavia who, looking up the boy for the purpose of herself asking him some question concerning Joe, learned that he had been absent for several hours.
“I may be an idiot to worry,” she said, taking her suspicions to Nat, “but I do think that we ought to set out on the trail of that youngster and bring him back before Doro has a chance to discover his absence. What do you think?”
“That you are right, as usual,” returned Nat, with a fond glance at the pretty Tavia. “We’ll be back in jig time with that young cousin of mine by the collar.”
CHAPTER VIII
THE SEARCH
Nat and Tavia got out the old Fire Bird machine that had seen them through many adventures in order to cover the ground with “full speed ahead,” to use Nat’s own phrase.
“Something tells me our young wanderer may have strayed far afield,” remarked Nat, as he manipulated things in preparation for the start. “We shall need all the gas and ingenuity we have if we are to return the kidlet before Dot discovers his absence.”
“He may only be playing in perfectly harmless fashion with his mates,” remarked Tavia, as she gloried in the sting of the wind against her face. “I probably am just scaring up trouble.”
“I hope so!” said Nat dubiously, and Tavia looked at him quickly.
“But you think not!” she said. “Am I right?”
“As always!” He smiled and then added gravely: “Roger is an obedient lad, you know, and he has been told always to be in the house by five o’clock. The fact that it is now approaching six and Roger still at large seems ominous to me.”