"Running away makes it look bad for Lawrence, Beggs, and Ba.s.swood,"

remarked Mr. Dale. "They should have stood their ground, as Morr and Porter did."

"That hotel man and the constable probably scared them so they did not know what they were doing," returned Doctor Clay. He turned to the boys. "You have no idea where they went?"

"No, sir, excepting that they went up the river in the Kingsley motor-boat. They know Tom Kingsley quite well and he lets them use the boat once in a while."

"Do you think you could find them, if I let you off to do so?"

"We could try, sir."

"Then you may go at once. Tell them it was very foolish to run away, and urge them to come back at once," added Doctor Clay.

A little more conversation followed, and then Dave and Roger left the office and started on the search for the runaways.

"We ought to have a motor-boat ourselves, to follow them up the river--that is, if they went any distance," said the senator's son.

"We might try to borrow one, Roger."

"Not Nat Poole's--he wouldn't lend it to us."

"I know that."

The two students walked to the river and looked up and down the stream. A rowboat and a sailboat were in sight, but that was all.

"There is Jack Laplow in his sloop," cried Dave, mentioning a riverman they knew. "The wind is blowing up the stream. Maybe he'll take us along."

They hailed the riverman, who made a living by doing all sorts of jobs on the stream. He did not have much to do just then and readily agreed, for a small amount, to take them up the river and bring them back.

"We want to find some fellows who are in the Kingsley motor-boat,"

explained Dave. "Have you seen anything of them?"

The riverman had not, but said he would help to watch out for the lads. Dave and Roger hopped aboard the sloop, and soon the little craft was standing up the Leming River, with Jack Laplow at the tiller.

It was a warm, clear day, and had the boys not been distressed in mind, they would have enjoyed the sail immensely. But as it was, they were very sober, so much so in fact that the old riverman at length remarked:

"What's wrong--somebody hurt, or are ye going to a funeral?"

"No funeral," answered Dave, with a forced laugh. "But we are in a hurry to find those three fellows."

"Well, I don't see no motor-boat yet," answered Jack Laplow.

"One thing is certain: if it went up the river it's got to come down,"

said Roger.

"They may get out and send it back," answered our hero.

"But, Dave, surely you don't think----" But Dave put up his hand for silence and nodded in the direction of the boatman; and the senator's son said no more.

A mile and a half were covered, and they were just pa.s.sing one of the many islands in the river, when Jack Laplow gave a shout.

"There is the motor-boat now!"

"Boat ahoy!" shouted Dave, and then, as they drew closer, he saw that it was really the Kingsley craft. He was chagrined to see that only a man was on board, a fellow who was running the boat very slowly.

"Where are those boys who were aboard?" demanded our hero, as the motor-boat came closer.

"Is this your boat?" asked the man on board, in return.

"No, but my friends were on that boat. Where are they?"

"Left the boat at Snog's Point, and hired me to bring her back. I don't know much about motor-boats, so I'm running kind o' slow,"

explained the man.

"Snog's Point?" repeated Roger. "Where were they going?"

"Don't ask me, for I don't know. They was in a tremenjous hurry, I know that. It's all right, ain't it?" went on the man, quickly.

"Oh, yes, it was all right," answered Dave. And then they allowed the man to go on his way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THERE IS THE MOTOR-BOAT NOW!"--_Page 186_.]

"Want to go up to Snog's Point?" asked the man of the sloop.

"Yes,--and as quickly as you can get there," replied Dave.

As the wind was in the right direction, it did not take long. The Point was a rocky cliff with a stretch of sand at its base. Here the boys jumped ash.o.r.e.

"Want me to wait for you?" asked the riverman.

"Wait for half an hour," said Dave. "Then, if we are not back, you can go back;" and so it was arranged.

In the sand our hero and Roger could plainly see the marks of the motor-boat and many footprints. They followed the footprints to a road leading through a stretch of woods, and then came out on a highway leading to Barrelton.

"The town is about half a mile from here. Wonder if they went there?"

mused Roger.

"Maybe we can learn something at the nearest farmhouse," suggested Dave.

They hurried on, and presently reached a farmhouse set close to the road, with a barn on the other side. At a grindstone a tall, thin boy was sharpening a sickle.

"Yes, I saw them fellers," he drawled, when asked about the runaways.

"They was walking to town to beat the cars. I thought they must be in one o' them cross-country races, or something like that."

"Come on!" cried Dave to his chum. Then he turned back suddenly. "Do you know anything about the trains from Barrelton?"

"Ain't many trains from there," answered the youth at the grindstone.

"But do you know what there are?"