“Which do you mean, the opportunity, or the car?” laughed Fred.
“Both. His opportunity was to take the car.”
“That tramp,” declared Fred solemnly, “didn’t have strength enough about him to push the button to turn on the power.”
“That’s something you don’t know,” retorted his friend. “I think when you are through with it you’ll find that the car disappeared at the same time the tramp did. No one has seen him since,” added Grant, positively.
“And from all I can learn,” retorted Fred, “nobody saw him before except myself, so you haven’t run down your problem yet.”
When the boys arrived at the Corners, as the little nearby hamlet was called, they made many inquiries of the people they met, but no word concerning the missing car was heard. There were several suggestions from the country people that other cars had been lost within the past few weeks, but none of them was able to add to the information which the boys already possessed.
Disappointed by their failures, George at last said, “I think the best thing for us to do will be to go back home. I’ll call up my father on the ’phone and if he isn’t coming out pretty soon he will tell me what to do.”
In response to George’s suggestion the boys once more clambered into the car and in a brief time were noisily speeding over the road on their way back to their friend’s house.
“We’ve got two mysteries now,” suggested George.
“Three you mean,” spoke up Fred quickly.