It was possible to follow this track a few yards, but there the trail ceased, the car apparently had been brought up again on the hard roadbed and no trace was left of its passage.
“What’s become of your tramp?” demanded George, suddenly turning upon John.
All four boys quickly looked about them, but the tramp had disappeared from sight.
“That’s one of the strangest things I ever heard of,” said Fred. “That tramp knew how you lost the other car and I guess he could tell some things about this one too, if he wanted to.”
“He was with me all the time,” spoke up John quickly. “I never lost sight of him a minute.”
“It’s a pity you didn’t do as well with the car,” said Grant.
“Well, the tramp and I went up into the orchard together. We were together all the while we were there and we came back together. When we got back here we saw that the car was gone. The tramp was here. Now will you please tell me how a tramp could steal an automobile and still be with me all the while?”
“What do you think is the best thing for us to do?” said George, turning to the mechanic.
“Your car isn’t here,” said the man, “and you could track it a little way, far enough to see that it was taken in that direction,” he explained as he pointed ahead of him. “Now that’s right on the way back to the garage and my advice is for all four of you to get into the car and we’ll see what we can find on the way back. If you don’t find anything we can telephone when you get into the village, or you can leave on the train. There’s one out in about an hour and a half.”
The suggestion finally was adopted and all four boys maintained a careful outlook for the missing car throughout their ride to the garage. However no trace of the missing automobile was discovered. The car had disappeared and the boys were stranded in a little village in northern New Jersey.