"We've just discovered," proceeded Matt, "that he has skipped out, too, and taken your monkey wagon along."
"Sure of that?"
"Ping just told us. Not only that, Burton, but he took my Dutch pard—the lad that came this morning—with him. Carl was locked in the cage."
"Worse and worse," ground out Burton. "How'd Ben Ali ever manage to do that?"
"On the face of it, I should say that Ben Ali had hypnotized Carl."
"Nonsense! What does an elephant driver know about hypnotism? Still, this begins to look like a comprehensive plan to steal a monkey wagon and a runabout and leave me in the lurch. What do you think of that Haidee girl to do a thing like this? She seemed mighty anxious to earn money, yet here she skips out with about a hundred in cash to her credit."
"It's hard to understand the turn events have taken," said Matt. "But I wouldn't blame Haidee too much until you know more about her—and about Ben Ali."
"I want my horses and my rolling stock," fretted Burton. "The rest of the outfit can go hang, if I get back the plunder."
"You said something about an automobile," said Matt.
"There's a car here, and the man that owns it is seeing the show. He said I could have the use of the car all afternoon for fifty dollars. He thought I was an easy mark, and I let him think so. He's got the money and I've got the car. After he'd gone inside, I happened to remember that I couldn't run the thing, so I chased off looking for you. Here we are," and the three, who had been walking in the direction of the road, came to the side of a large automobile.