CHAPTER III--TWO STRANGE MEN
"What are you going to do, Jack?" asked Cora.
"Notify the Chelton police, and also the authorities here. They willsend out a general alarm better than we can. Now who saw these chaps,and how did they look?"
"Belle saw them."
"Then, Belle, I'll have to call on your detective abilities. Describethese villainous characters."
"I wouldn't call them particularly villainous looking," said the tallgirl. "In fact we thought for a time it was you two, and----"
"I see," interrupted Walter. "Belle, I thank you for your good opinion."
"Come on, get down to business!" exclaimed Jack Kimball. "I want to knowhow these fellows looked so I can tell the police. Were they young orold?"
"Two young men," answered Belle. "They were about your age, Jack."
"But, unfortunately, they did not have his angelic disposition," mockedWalter. "Bouquets are coming your way fast, Jack."
"I'll dispense with them. Come on now, Belle. Anything else except thatthey were young?"
Belle thought for a moment. She had had such a momentary glimpse of thetwo that, really, it was hard to describe them adequately for thepurposes of police detection.
"Why not describe the car?" asked Cora. "No matter who is in my machinethey haven't a right to it, and they should be arrested on sight."
"Good idea!" agreed Jack. "I can describe the car right enough."
"And give the license numbers," said Bess.
"Of course. Good girl. Let me have them, Cora."
They were the only ones in the tea room at this time, and the excitementwas only communicated to the help. The waitress showed Jack where thetelephone booth was, and while Cora, Walter and the girls explained tothe girl cashier at the desk what had happened, Jack got the Cheltonpolice over the telephone and asked them to send out an alarm, and alsoto be on the lookout for the thieves.
The tea room was in Pepack, the township next to Chelton, and Jack alsocalled up the town hall and notified the authorities there, who promisedto do what they could.
"But they may have taken any of half a dozen roads leading out of here,"Walter said. "They must have hurried away."
"And you didn't have a glimpse of them?" asked Belle.
"Not a trace," answered Jack. "We managed to pick up the trail by meansof that patch on the tire. Saw it in the dust several times. Then it waslost in the shuffle, as you might say, so we thought it better to comeback. I wonder if the people here noticed anything of two strange menhanging about."
"We'll ask the cashier," suggested Cora.
She knew, slightly, the girl who sat at the cash register, for Ye OldeSpinning Wheel was a popular resort for automobile parties.
"Yes, Miss Kimball," the girl said, "there were two young men in herethis morning, though whether they were the ones who took your car Ican't say."
"How did they look?" asked Jack.
"Well, I don't know that I can tell you. They were both of mediumheight, and were smooth shaven--I mean they had no beards or moustaches,though both of them would have been better for a visit to the barber's."
"What did they do or say?" asked Walter.
"They came in and each had a plate of cream," went on the girl. "Ididn't exactly like their looks, for, though we try to run a place thatwill suit every one, we are a bit particular too. But they didn't makeany fuss, and even tipped the waitress."
"Then they must be 'regular fellows,'" said Walter, jokingly.
"'Scuse me," broke in the voice of the waitress--the same one who hadwaited on the girls--"but de dime tip dey gibbed me wasn't any good."
"Why not?" asked Jack.
"It was plugged. Look!" and she exhibited it.
"So it is!" exclaimed Cora's brother. "They weren't so regular afterall."
"I didn't see it till after dey'd gone," the negress went on.
"Perhaps you can describe them for me," Jack suggested.
It developed that the waitress could give a better word-picture of thetwo young men than could the cashier, whose attention, naturally, wastaken up with her duties at the desk.
Jack noted down the none too good distinguishing marks as described bythe waitress, and went to telephone them to the police as an additionalhelp in capturing those who had gone with Cora's car.
There was nothing more that could be done just then, and Jack was aboutto suggest that, by means of a little crowding, he could take his sisterand her chums back to Chelton in his car when the young woman who hadcharge of the tea room entered, it being her hour to go on duty.
"What's the matter?" she asked, as she observed the group of excitedyoung people about the cashier's desk.
"Two strange young men went off with Miss Kimball's auto," was thecashier's answer, and the circumstances were related.
"Two young men!" exclaimed the manager. "Why I remember those two whohad cream in here this morning. They spoke to me as they came out on theporch, and I bought tickets of them."
"Tickets!" exclaimed Jack. "Tickets?"
"Yes. They seemed all right--I mean respectful and all that. They saidthey had unexpectedly run out of funds and wanted to know if I wouldn'tbuy some railroad tickets they had to New York. I said I hadn't any usefor them, and couldn't get off to go to New York anyhow, as this was ourbusy season."
"So you didn't buy them?" asked Cora. "But I thought you said----"
"I didn't buy the railroad tickets," said the young lady manager. "But Idid purchase two tickets for the opera performance that is to be givenat Chelton on Friday night. I'd been wanting to go, and I was going totelephone for tickets when these young men said they had two good onesthey'd let me have for less than the regular price."
"And you took them?" asked Walter.
"Yes. It seemed a bargain, and I am desirous to see the play."
"Do you mind letting me see the tickets?" asked Jack.
"Certainly you may see them," was the answer, and from her pocketbook,which she had left in charge of the cashier, the manager took out twoslips of blue pasteboard.
"Hum! They seem regular all right," remarked Jack. "Date and seatnumbers all proper. I know where those seats are, too, right in themiddle of the first row balcony. I always sit there myself when I go."
"They said they were good seats," declared the girl, "and I saved adollar. They wanted the money they said, for they had spent their lastfor some ice cream. They seemed to be all right."
"Maybe they were," agreed Jack. "Of course it's perfectly proper forpersons who can't use railroad or theatre tickets they have purchased,to sell them again. And these tickets seem to be the same as those youwould get at the box office. And there's no crime in being without cash.But it is a crime to take an automobile."
"The only question is whether the same two fellows are involved,"suggested Walter.
"That's it," agreed Jack. "I wish you girls had had a better look atthose who went off in the machine."
"It all happened so suddenly," Belle explained.
"Yes, such things generally do," remarked Cora. "Well, there's nothingelse to do, is there?"
"I guess not," said Jack, who had telephoned in the additionaldescription of the young men who had sold the tickets, adding theinformation that there was only a suspicion that they were the same twowho were responsible for the taking of the car.
"If they had only kept the theatre tickets, instead of selling them,"said Walter, "we'd have a good chance of arresting them."
"How?" Belle demanded.
"By watching those two seats. As soon as the fellows came in to taketheir places we could have an officer arrest them."
"Please don't try it on me," begged the young lady who had purchased thecoupons. "I don't want a scene," and she regarded Walter smilingly.
"Of course not," agreed Cora. "Oh, dear! My nice car, that I wascounting on taking to Camp Surprise with me."
"We'll get it back before then!" declared Jack.
"Oh! but we're going earlier than we plann
ed originally," said Belle.
"And she wants you boys to come, too!" cried Bess.
"No more than you do!" snapped Belle, her fair face flushing.
"What's the idea?" asked Walter.
"It's getting so unbearably warm," said Cora, and then she explainedthat they might go earlier than originally planned to the bungalow campin the mountains.
"Well, we might manage it," Jack said. "We'll talk it over, Wally. Haveto see Paul, though I guess he'd fit in anywhere Bess went."
"Oh! is that so?" cried the plump girl, blushing in her turn.
The tea room people promised to be on the lookout for the strange youngmen, and to notify Jack or the police if they came around again.
"But if they were the ones who took the car they won't come back,"Walter declared.
By crowding, all the young people managed to get in Jack's car. On theway back to Chelton a sharp lookout was kept for the missing machine,but no trace of it was seen, and Cora was much depressed when shereached home.
"Never mind," whispered Jack, "you may use mine, Sis, until yours showsup. Don't worry, we'll get it yet."
"I hope so," murmured Cora.