“This is Gibbonsville, and it marks the end of the detour,” said Miss Alling. “Just beyond here we come upon the lake road again.”
“That is lucky,” said Amy. “One more mile of that road, and I shouldn’t have had a tight tooth in my head.” Her voice died off vaguely. She had started forward in her seat, her gaze suddenly fixed and staring.
“What is it?” cried Jessie.
“There is that girl! The one who gave me the counterfeit bill!”
CHAPTER IX
ON THE HUNT
“Oh, stop the car, Miss Alling, please!” cried Jessie, on impulse, and automatically Miss Alling responded.
The car slowed to a standstill before the store upon the porch of which Amy had seen the strange girl.
“She is gone, worst luck!” cried Amy, as she opened the car door and leaped to the ground. “Did you see the look she gave me, Jess?” she added, as her chum followed her and together they approached the store. “Just one long stare, and then the disappearing act.”
“Oh, hush,” cautioned Jessie, as she laid a hand upon the crazily-swung screen door at the entrance to the store. “She may be just inside, and we don’t want her to know we are talking about her.”
But the strange girl was not within, as Jessie and Amy soon found out, and a guarded questioning of the languid storekeeper brought forth no information as to her whereabouts.