"Inte, minte," suggested Jimsy.

"Oh, yes! That's it," responded Roy. "I've got it now. Inte, minte, cute corn, apple seeds and briar thorn, briar thorn and limber lock, three geese in a flock, one flew east and one flew west, one flew into a cuckoo's nest, O-U-T out, with a ragged dish clout, out!" ending with Bess.

"Sorry for you, Bess!" cried the lad, "but you're the first victim to be offered up."

"Oh, well, it's too hot to go chasing all over dusty country roads,"

declared Bess bravely, although she would dearly have loved to go on the adventurous search for the missing aeroplane.

One after another they were counted out till only Roy, Peggy and Jimsy remained.

"Hurry up and let's get off," urged Jimsy as the "elimination trials,"

as they might be termed, were concluded.

"Very well. We'll get the car--it's in the garage at the hotel--and incidentally, we might get a lunch put up also. It may be a long chase."

The officer regarded them with frank amazement.

"My! but you city folks rush things," he exclaimed.

"I suppose they'll get busy on this case day after to-morrow," exclaimed Roy disgustedly, as they hastened away.

It was half an hour later that the big touring car, with Roy at the wheel, rolled out of the hotel yard. Jake had been told off to guard the livery stable and the aeroplanes while the rest remained with Miss Prescott, who was seriously agitated at the acc.u.mulation of troubles her party had met with since setting out.

"I declare," she said, "I wish I was back at home where I could get a decent cup of tea and be free of worries."

The trail of the aeroplane was not difficult to follow. It led down the village main street and thence along a country road till it came to a sort of cross roads. Here it branched off and followed a by-road for a mile or so. At a gate in a hedge all signs failed however, although it was plain that the machine had been wheeled through the gap and taken across a field.

Beyond this field lay what appeared to be a wilderness of woods and bushes.

"Stumped!" exclaimed Roy, as he brought the auto to a stop.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FINDING OF THE "b.u.t.tERFLY."

"Well, what next?" asked Jimsy.

"Make a search of those woods, I suppose," replied Roy; "there's nothing else to do."

"No, the trail has brought us here," replied Peggy energetically; "we must make a determined effort to find the _b.u.t.terfly_."

"Maybe they've damaged it so that we won't be able to do anything with it when we do get it," spoke Jimsy presently.

"Whom do you mean by they?" asked Roy.

"As if you didn't know. Is there any doubt in your mind that that fellow Ca.s.sell is at the bottom of all this?"

"Not very much, I'll admit," replied Roy; "I wonder if that accounts for the inactivity of the police."

"In just what way?"

"Well, the fellow's a local politician and has a lot of 'pull'."

"He _must_ have, to get away with anything like this," was Jimsy's indignant outburst.

"Well, don't let us waste time speculating," put in Peggy, in her brisk manner; "the thing to do now is to get back the _Golden b.u.t.terfly_."

"You're right, Peg," came from both boys.

By this time they were out of the car, which they left standing at the roadside while they examined the vicinity for tracks. But the gra.s.s in the field was fairly long and no traces remained. Yet, inasmuch as the tracks of the _b.u.t.terfly_ ended at the gap in the hedge, it was manifest that that was the point at which it had been wheeled off the road.

"What next?" asked Jimsy, as it became certain that there was little use in searching for a trail in the meadow.

"It's like looking for a needle in that proverbial haystack," struck in Peggy.

"In my opinion we need the patience of Job and the years of old Methuselah," opined Jimsy.

Roy alone was not discouraged.

"It can't be so very far off," he urged; "it stands to reason that they can't have come much further than this since midnight, supposing the machine to have been stolen about that hour."

The others agreed with him.

"We'll search all around here, including those woods," declared Peggy.

"Well, they can't have taken it very far into the woods," declared Jimsy; "the spread of its wings would prevent that."

"That's so," agreed Roy; "I think we are getting pretty 'warm' right now."

"All I am afraid of is that they may have damaged it," breathed Peggy anxiously.

"It would be in line with their other tactics," agreed Roy; "men who would try to burn down a stable with two boys in it, just to obtain revenge for a fancied insult or injury, are capable of anything."

Without further waste of time they crossed the meadow and came to the edge of the wood. At the outskirts of the woods the trees grew thinly and it was plain that it would have been possible to wheel an aeroplane into their shadow, despite the breadth of its wing-spread.

They pa.s.sed under the outlying trees and presently emerged into a small, open s.p.a.ce, in the midst of which was a hut. Just beyond this hut was a sight that caused them to shout aloud with joy. There, apparently unharmed, stood the missing aeroplane.

"Hurray!" shouted Roy, dashing forward.

The others were close on his heels. In their excitement they paid little or no attention to the surroundings. It might have been better for them had they done so. As they dashed across the clearing two male figures slipped off among the thicker trees that lay beyond the open s.p.a.ce and the hut.

A brief examination showed them that the aeroplane was undamaged. There were a few scratches on it, but beyond that it appeared in perfect condition.

"We'll fly back," declared Jimsy to Peggy; "Roy can run the auto home."