Ned gave a low whistle.
“Exhibit A,” he muttered. “There isn’t a doubt in the world but what this is Joe’s head gear! What do you make of that, Dot?”
Dorothy shook her head and turned to the interested railroad man.
“Do you mind telling me where you got that cap?” she said unsteadily.
“The lad left it behind in his hurry,” he replied. “I saw it lying on the bench and, thinking the boy might return for it, put it away in the office.”
“Oh, that was awfully good of you,” said Dorothy. “You don’t know how very much this means to me.”
The agent looked embarrassed, for he was one of those kind-hearted men who cannot take thanks gracefully and, as several people entered the station at that moment, he excused himself and took his place again at the window.
Seeing that they had all the information they were likely to get from this source, Ned pocketed the cap that Joe had left behind him and they crossed the tracks to the opposite platform of the station, there to take the return train to North Birchlands.
On the way back Ned was excited and talkative but Dorothy was very quiet.
“Why is it that every kid who wants to run away immediately heads west?” asked Ned of an inattentive and thoughtful Dorothy. “Sometimes they make a break for the seacoast, but more often it is the wild and woolly that tempts the youthful imagination. Say, Dot,” he added, struck by a sudden thought, “why in the world didn’t we ask that fellow how far west Joe was going?”