“Gee whiz!” exclaimed Tom.
“I suppose, sergeant, you’ve sent out men to look for him?” drawled Dave Brandon.
“Your supposition is quite correct,” answered Erskine. “We have means of tracing people, and our men kept on Warren’s trail until a certain point was reached. Then—well—the man was nowhere to be found—he had vanished.”
“Some accident must have happened to him,” exclaimed Sam Randall. “We met Jed on the plains of Wyoming, and you couldn’t find a straighter, squarer fellow than he.”
“I’ll subscribe to that,” put in Bob Somers.
“When anybody says anything good about Jed Warren I’ll agree to it,” remarked Dick Travers.
“Never having seen the hero I can’t say,” drawled Larry Burnham, with a sidelong glance at Tom. “But I’ve heard enough about him to make me think he’s a wonder.”
“You’re as sour as you are big,” growled Tom.
“Go on, sergeant; please finish your story,” pleaded Dick Travers.
“I don’t know about any accident happening to Warren,” resumed the sergeant, “for we pretty soon struck a clue which makes things look bad for him.”