A VAIN SEARCH
"Here's where the collision occurred!" exclaimed Cora a little
later, when her car and Jack's, having been sent at a fast speed
down the road, came to a halt, and she directed her brother's
attention to the spot.
"No, this isn't it," objected Walter. "It's farther on. It's right
near an old stump, don't you remember?"
"Oh, yes," answered Cora as she sent her car ahead again. "This is
where we nearly ran into the wagon. I'm so excited I can't think
straight."
"Well, be sure you steer straight!" cried Jack from the rear. "I
don't want to run into you. Better let Walter take the wheel."
"Indeed, I'll do nothing of the sort!" cried Cora, laughing. "With
all due respect to you, Walter, of course," she added with a bright
look up into the face of her companion. "But don't you think I can
manage my machine pretty well?"
"More than pretty and more than well," was her escort's reply. "Jack
is a base defamer of your ability."
"Oh, you had to say that, Walt!" cried Jack, the irrepressible.
"Push on. We want to get that money before some one walks off with
it."
They were soon at the spot, where many tracks in the road showed
that there the collision had taken place. Here was where Ed had
alighted to fix Cora's car. His small machine had on a set of
peculiar tires, and the impressions and indentations of the rubber
shoes, which were new, were plainly, visible in the road.
Stopping their machines alongside the highway, the three young
people began a careful search of the dusty stretch. They went over
every inch of the ground, particularly in the vicinity of the place
where Ed had stopped to fix the broken mud guard. But there was no
sign of the pocketbook.
"Maybe it was dropped farther back," suggested Jack.
"Well, we'll try there," assented Cora, and for ten minutes they
walked up and down the road, some distance back from the place where
Ed had alighted.
"Now try farther on," was Walter's suggestion, and they did this.
But all to no purpose. They were not rewarded by the welcome sight
of a brown leather wallet, bulging with riches.
"It's no use," said Jack.
"Oh, let's try a little longer," begged Cora.
"Well, if he dropped it before he got here, or after he left, we
might as well make the entire trip to New City, and then reverse and
go to Chelton," went on Jack. "And we can't look over every inch of
all the distance."
"We can drive along slowly," was Cora's idea. "The wallet is so
large that it could easily be seen. It's too bad we haven't Sid and
Ida along to help hunt for it. And the Robinson girls, and Mary. The
more eyes, the better. I'll go on to New City, if you'll make a
search on the road from here to Chelton, Jack."
"Oh, I don't know as it would do any good."
"It won't do any harm," said Walter. "That is, if Cora isn't too
tired."
"Oh, I should love to go. I can't get enough of my new car. Will
you come, Walter?"
"Of course."
"Then, Jack, you go back to Chelton and keep a lookout on both sides
of the road."
"Hard to do that with one pair of eyes," was her brother's reply.
"I wish I had some one to ride with me. But go ahead; I'll do the
best I can."
"It would be a good plan," assented Cora, "to have a person with
you. If you could pick up some one--"
"Or run across somebody," added Jack with a grin.
"No, Jack, I'm serious. Don't joke. Even a stranger would do. Some
man--"
"Here comes a man now!" exclaimed Walter as an individual came in
sight around a bend in the road. The man was not very well dressed.
"I don't like his looks," said Jack in a low voice. "He seems like
a tramp."
"I don't blame you for not liking his looks," interrupted Walter.
"That's Lem Gildy."
"The man we saw talking to Sid when he ran his auto into the
blacksmith shop?" asked Cora.
Walter nodded.
"Humph!" mused Jack. "I don't exactly fancy telling Lem Gildy about
a pocketbook containing twenty thousand dollars lying alongside the
road. He might not admit that he saw it if he happened to spy it
while with me, and later on he might come back and pick it up."
"Well, don't tell him what you're looking for," suggested Cora with
ready wit. "Just say it's--er--a--er--"
"Say it's a lady's pocketbook," put in Walter, "and then he'll know
it's got everything in it but money. That's playing a safety with a
vengeance."
"Oh, so that's your opinion of us, is it?" asked Cora quickly. "But,
after all, Jack, I think it's the best plan to ask him to ride back
with you, and have him watch one side of the road. Of course, he's
rather dirty--I mean his clothes--and it's not nice to sit alongside
of him, but--"
"Oh, I don't mind clean dirt," interrupted Jack. "It's only garden
soil on Lem's clothes. He does odd jobs, you know."
"Not very often," added Walter. "But go ahead, Jack. He's coming
nearer. I don't believe you can do better than ask him to ride back
to Chelton with you. Needn't be too specific about what's in the
pocketbook. But two pairs of eyes are better than one, you know."
"All right," assented Jack. "Here goes."
Lem Gildy was shuffling along the road. He was a particularly
unprepossessing man, with a reddish growth of whiskers which he
never seemed to take the trouble to shave off, and they stuck out
like so many bristles in a half-worn toothbrush.
His teeth were yellow, and his habit of chewing tobacco was not to
be commended. In short, he was a "shiftless" character, and nice
persons had very little to do with him.
"Hello, Lem!" called Jack pleasantly.
"Hello," was the rather surly answer, and Lem shot a suspicious
glance at Jack. It was not often that the young and wealthy Jack
Kimball condescended to speak to Lem Gildy, and Lem realized it.
"Want a ride?" went on Jack, trying to make his voice sound natural.
"Don't look as if you was goin' my way," replied Lem with a grin.
Then he turned his gaze on Cora, and the beautiful girl could not
repress a shudder as she felt the bold glance of the man.
"Oh, I'm going to turn around," declared Jack. "I'm going back to
Chelton. That's where you're headed for, I take it?"
"Sure. That's where I'm goin', and I'm tired, too. I've had a long
walk this mornin', and--"
"Are you working in the blacksmith shop?" asked Walter quietly.
"No. What made you think that?" asked Lem quickly. "If you
think--"
Then he stopped suddenly. An indignant look, that Lem had assumed,
faded from his face. "No, I wasn't workin' there," he went on.
"I--er--I just stopped in to see about gettin' a piece of iron."
"Well, do you want to ride back with me?" asked Jack, who wondered
at Walter's question.
"That's what I do, if you're goin' my way."
"Yes, I'll turn around in a minute. Go ahead, Cora and Walter. Get
back as soon as you can."
Jack cranked up his car, got in, and, running in a half circle,
steered it to where Lem was standing.
"I ain't much in the habit of ridin' in these here kind of wagons,"
remarked Lem with a smirk. "I hope nothin' happens t' us."
"I guess nothing will. But, Lem, I'm not going to give you a ride
for nothing," said Jack.
The man drew back suspiciously. He had expected something like
this, his manner seemed to say.
"I ain't got any money," he whined.
"No, it's not money," went on Jack. "I only want you to help me
look for something."
"Look for Suthin'?"
"Yes; along the road."
"What's the matter? Lose part of your autymobil?"
"No; it's a pocketbook--a wallet."
"A wallet?" exclaimed Lem, with such suddenness that Jack started.
"Yes," cried the lad. "You don't mean to say you found it?"
Lem seemed agitated. He shuffled his feet in the dust.
"Me find a pocketbook?" he said at length with a short laugh. "Well,
I guess not. I ain't in the habit of findin' such things as that.
What kind was it, and what was in it?"
"It was a long one of brown leather," replied Jack, describing Ed's
pocketbook and ignoring the question of what was in it. "A friend of
mine dropped it along here, and we're helping him hunt for it. My
sister and Mr. Pennington are going to look in one direction, and
you and I'll look in the other."
Jack tried to make his voice sound friendly, but it was difficult
work.
"You'll look on one side of the road, and I'll keep watch on the
other," he went on.
"All right; I'm agreeable," said Lem with a leer. "I don't believe
we'll find it, though--I ain't never very lucky."
He got into the auto beside Jack, and the two started off slowly.
Cora and Walter also started, and the search for the missing twenty
thousand dollars was continued.
Jack and Lem did not talk much on the way back. Lem Gildy was not
an accomplished conversationalist, and Jack was too anxious to find
the wallet to care for the distraction of talk. Several times he
thought he saw the pocketbook, but each time it was a flat stone or
a clod of dirt that misled him.
They reached Chelton, and Lem asked to be set down in a secluded
street.
"Why?" asked Jack curiously.
"Because if some of me chums saw me ridin' in a swell wagon like
this they'd never speak to me again," and Lem grinned and showed all
his yellow teeth. "I was afraid we wouldn't find that pocketbook,"
he added.
"Well, maybe Cora will," said Jack.
"Yes," said Lem slowly, "maybe she will--or some one else will."
His tone was so peculiar that Jack asked quickly:
"What do you mean, Lem?"
"Oh, nothin'," and the fellow assumed an injured air. "Only if a
pocketbook is lost, some one's bound to find it, ain't they?"
"I suppose so," assented Jack, and as he drove his car through the
streets of Chelton, after the unsuccessful search, he found himself
vainly puzzling over Lem's strange manner.
Then, as he was turning a corner, Jack caught sight of Ed.
"Hey!" he called.
Ed turned. There was a momentary look of hope on his face.
"Did you--" he began.
Jack sadly shook his head.