“A Forest Service car!” she exclaimed, over-joyed. “Good Aunt Mattie! She must have put through a fast telephone call to the ranger station. Our troubles are over!”
“I thought your aunt intended to call the highway patrol headquarters,” Kathleen commented, watching the approaching car with troubled eyes.
“Maybe she called ’em both. At any rate, a forest ranger is just what the doctor ordered!”
Judy rushed out to meet the approaching automobile, waving her arms to attract attention.
The car drew up with a slight squeak of brakes. Judy saw then that the driver was Lowell Diethelm, and he seemed as surprised to see her and Kathleen as they were to encounter him on the lonely road.
“Did Aunt Mattie reach you?” Judy demanded.
The ranger’s startled expression disclosed that he did not know what she was talking about.
“I guess Aunt Mattie hasn’t had time to get word through,” Judy went on. “Anyway, you’re here in time to nab those hi-jackers!”
She and Kathleen then breathlessly told of their suspicions, and pointed out the big truck which had been hidden in the thicket.
In their anxiety to tell the story clearly and fast, neither girl noticed that Diethelm was watching them in an odd sort of way, but not asking many questions.