A call on the telephone speedily demanded George’s attention and as soon as he rejoined his friends he said, “I have been talking to my father.”
“You mean your father has been talking to you,” suggested Fred.
Ignoring the interruption, George continued, “My father says that he has word of a car that is being held in Morristown. In some ways it answers the description of ours. He thinks it will be a good thing for us to go there to-morrow and find out more about it.”
“Good plan. Good scheme,” said Fred sympathetically. “Did your father say anything about suitably rewarding the tramp for his return of the car which he probably had all the while?”
“He did,” said George simply. “He told me to give him a ten dollar bill.”
“That’s all right,” said Fred eagerly. “Now I think it will be a good thing for each of us to take his turn, too,” he added. “Every one of us can take that car off and hide it over night and get ten dollars reward when he brings it back in the morning. That’s all your friend Mr. Tramp did.”
“That’s no such thing!” spoke up John, quick to defend his recent acquaintance.
“You may have it your own way,” laughed Fred. “Then we’re to go over and call on him to-night at the old Meeker House, are we?”
“That’s just what we are going to do,” said John.
True to the suggestion, soon after sunset the Go Ahead boys rode to the mysterious house. When they left their car by the roadside and started across the intervening field it was plain that there was an air of greater confidence now manifest by all four boys than in any previous visit.