Entering the garage George inquired for the manager and soon was in conversation with a young man, who at once became deeply interested in the boys and in the story they were telling him. At last he said, “The car you are talking about is back here in the corner. Come with me and I’ll show it to you.”
Eagerly following the manager the boys soon stopped in front of the car which he indicated. “You see,” explained the young man, “this car has recently been painted. It has a Pennsylvania license, but that could be very easily obtained for they could run over across the Pennsylvania line and then come up into New York State. There are some other changes that have been made, but I want you to look at it and tell me whether or not you think it is the car you have lost.”
“I don’t think it is,” said George promptly.
“Better look at it more closely,” said the manager. “Sometimes these cars are created the way they used to tell me the gypsies did when I was a boy. You know they used to scare us by telling us that the gypsies stole children and then they fixed them up so that their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them.”
“How did they do that?” inquired John.
“Oh, I don’t know. I suppose they cut their hair, painted their faces and dressed them up in some outlandish clothes. Well, that’s the way these men that steal automobiles sometimes do. They fix them up so that their owners wouldn’t recognize the cars as theirs.”
A further and careful investigation of the car was made but it was not long before George said positively, “That isn’t our car.”
“You’re sure, are you?” again inquired the manager.
“Yes, sir. I’m sure. The engine isn’t like ours. There are more spokes in the wheels and the hood is different. No, I’m sure it’s not our car.”
George’s disappointment was manifest in the tones of his voice and his friends naturally shared in his feelings.