"They was goin' somewhere, I think. Then--"

"Yah--yah!" This from Nels in the doorway. "They bane had der dinners."

Meanwhile Phil was thinking what Chip had told them that morning. Paul's absence was now explained. Worth also felt that an astonishing light had dawned on him somehow. He turned to Way, saying:

"What doughheads we were when Chip was talking so glibly about what he was going to do! Why, the thing is sheer nonsense!"

"More than that, it is dangerous!" exclaimed Phil. "Suppose them two boys meet up with Murky way off in the burnt over woods. What'll Murky do to 'em?"

"Don't talk punk, Phil!" Billy was in cold earnest now. "You know what he'd do or try to do, if he thought they had come after that money.

There's nothing he _wouldn't_ do if he could, that would put them off his trail and land them--oh, goodness! It makes me cold when I think of Paul."

Here the Anderson girl timidly approached, holding out a sc.r.a.p of paper.

"He give it me," said the child. "Pap was away and ma was busy."

"Who gave it you?" demanded Phil as Worth took the soiled, folded paper.

"One of you boys. They was leavin'. Ma didn't know," seeing Mrs. Anderson looking on with astonishment written all over her. "I fergot it 'til now."

"Boys," the pencilled scrawl began. "I'm off with Chip. We got some grub along, and a pair of blankets. Chip thinks we can follow Murky. I just got to go along, too. Paul. P.S. Don't worry."

Nels' wife was fishing out a blanket from a scant pile of bedding in one corner, and held it out, saying:

"He says wrong, sir. They ain't got but one blanket; for Mr. Paul he--offered us one of the two he had. I wouldn't take it but he piled it with the things folks brought in. Then they both hurried off."

"Ve nefer see dat blanket," began Nels. "No. He done left it. Mein frau, she find it v'en day bane gone."

The situation now looked more grave to the boys than ever. Little was said, however. Even Dave would only commit himself so far as to e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e:

"Paul always was a fool!"

But this was said in no animadversive sense. It was wholly sympathetic, even while Dave might have disapproved. Finding there was nothing more to be done for Nels they were about to leave when Anderson, who had been whispering with his wife, suddenly announced:

"I bane go mit you. I know de woods. I lif in de woods. I go mit you!"

"It won't do, Nels," remonstrated Worth. "You ain't fit. You're needed more here."

"How did you know we were going after Paul and Chip?" asked Phil.

Nels smiled for the first time that day. His wife explained.

"He knew you boys were good and that you loved your chum. Perhaps he felt that you were sorry for Chip, too. He wants to do his part. But I think you are right. In his fix he'd better stay with us."

All three boys insisted that Nels' place was with his family. It looked that way, anyhow. But Nels shook his head rather grimly. Finally he retired to the doorsteps, neither taking part in further discussion nor saying much of anything more at all.

After the boys left, however, he bestirred himself. His wife, understanding him better than others, mutely began preparing more food. Meanwhile Nels, from some recess in his rough clothing, resurrected two one-dollar bills. These he forced upon his wife, who meantime had wrapped up certain provisions and made him take the blanket left by Paul.

On the way back to town the boys encountered Link Fraley; and he, being in their confidence, was briefly told all that had occurred. As they explained the grin on Link's face grew broader, his eyes twinkled and he seemed vastly tickled at something.

"Well, what you goin' to do?" He asked it as if he already knew.

They told him, and he slapped the boys on the shoulders congratulatingly as he rejoined:

"Bully for you, boys! Stick to your friends! That's the way to git along in this world. That little hungry looking cuss Chip--why, somehow I kinder liked him. Lemme tell you something. I'm goin' 'long, too."

Here Link's smile grew so broad that it nearly met his ears. "I been doin'

some thinkin' of my own. I ain't after money in this. Yet, if we should happen to git that money back, or he'p 'em git it, I rather guess Mr.

Beckley would do the right thing."

"He would; I feel sure of that." Phil was speaking. "But that isn't worrying us so much as that Chip and Paul should start out that way without even letting out a cheep what they was up to."

"We-ell!" Link looked uncommonly wise. "You see, they two had seen that ugly cuss first. Then ag'in, I think Chip felt sore 'cause Murky beat him up so. He'd sorter like to git even, I reckon."

"Another thing," put in Phil. "Chip knows that his dead father didn't act up square 'bout that money either. Grandall put him up to it. But Chip, I'm thinkin', wants to do the fair thing."

"You say you are going along, too?" asked MacLester. "That is good of you, Mr. Fraley. We've lost our car and the Longknives have lost their money. I guess it's right that we should all help to try to get the money back.

As for the car--our bully old Thirty--well, we'll have to get home without it. But what made Paul and Chip in such a hurry?"

"Chip's knocked about a good deal. He knew that if Murky got out of the big woods our chance to get him would be small." This from Worth. "By the time it all got into the hands of the police there'd be more or less costs and--and expenses. As for Paul Jones, he just couldn't help it, I guess."

"When will you be ready, Link?" queried Phil. "That is, if you are really going along."

"Ready right now, boys. When will you start?"

"It's now mid-afternoon," remarked Phil. "I propose we get ready and start at daylight tomorrow. It has rained off and on all day--hullo! Here comes Mr. Beckley."

Beckley, still followed by his henchman Daddy O'Lear, came hurriedly out of the only telephone office in Staretta. When he learned what the boys together with Fraley were up to, he looked dubious. Finally he said:

"Perhaps it is the best way after all. Nothing more can be done here.

Whether we recover the money or not, it is right that you should look after your chum and--and that Slider boy." Mr. Beckley spoke this last as if he rather had doubts if Chip were worth looking after. But, with the Auto Boys on the trail he felt safe as far as the money went, provided they found Murky, and the spoil Murky would be apt to have with him.

CHAPTER XIV

TRAILING THE STOLEN MONEY

Several miles away from the wagon trail that led from Staretta to the now destroyed Longknives' clubhouse, two boys were groping along in the falling twilight in a discouraged manner.

Around them stretched seemingly endless vistas of burned and blackened forest, stark, leafless, forbidding. Under foot was a sooty, miry quagmire of rain-soaked soil, naturally low, swampy in places, and now all but impa.s.sable. The rain had subsided into a misty drizzle, soft, fine, yet penetrating.

"Gee but I'm tired, Chip!" said the younger of the two, lifting with effort one foot after the other from the deep mud underneath.

"Well, she _is_ gettin' rather bad," replied the other. "Won't be much moon tonight, I reckon."

"D'you suppose the other boys will start out such a day as this?"