"Her friend, Grace Winthrop, might have," suggested Ned.
"Nonsense! As if either of those girls would be in communication with Gorro and his gang!" scoffed Tom.
"Oh, I didn't mean it that way!" Ned made haste to say. "But they might have been talking our trip over between themselves while downtown in Chesterport, and some of this gang might have overheard them and decided it would be a good chance to get a fine new car easily."
"It's possible, but not very probable," answered Tom.
"Then there's that fellow," suggested Ned.
"What fellow?"
"Floyd Barton—the one who was showing Mary so much attention. She might have let the object of our trip slip out to Barton and he may have talked."
But Tom Swift shook his head.
"He's one of those rich chaps who don't care about anything but hanging around girls and having a good time," said the young inventor, and Ned surmised that there was little love lost between Tom and Floyd Barton.
"Well, maybe we'll get at the bottom of this some day," went on Ned. "But those fellows, whoever they were, must have known we were coming and been on the lookout for us."