"Was he-was Pep seriously hurt?" faltered Randy.

"Not but what he could walk and sa.s.s the chauffeur, and all that; but I reckon one hand was pretty badly crushed. The reason I came to tell you was, that isn't all of it. From what I hear he is kidnapped."

CHAPTER IX-PEP IN CLOVER

"Kidnapped!" repeated Randy, in a hollow tone.

The furniture man nodded his head a.s.sentingly. He was big and fat and had evidently come in a hurry. He had been blunt, but confused in telling his story. Now he took a long breath to begin again.

Randy felt his heart sink. Everything had been going so well that the sudden news of an interruption to their buoyant progress chilled him through sheer contrast. He fancied all kinds of mishaps, and, seizing his visitor by the sleeve, pulled it in a worried way.

"Tell me all about it-quick," he demanded.

"Thought I had, but I guess you didn't get it straight. This Pep of yours was pa.s.sing my place when I heard a woman shriek a bit ahead. She had left her child in a baby carriage while she went into a dry goods store. There came a whiff of wind down the street just as she came out.

I don't wonder she hollered out, for that baby carriage was shooting across the street like a feather in a tornado."

"But-Pep?" urged Randy, breathlessly. "What of him?"

"He saw it in a flash. The woman stood motionless and screaming. This Pep made a sprint. I never saw anything done so splendidly. In a flash he slid over the pavement-just seemed to fly over the street, making for that baby carriage. No wonder he hurried and no wonder the woman screamed, for exactly at that instant a great red touring car came tearing around the corner. It held the chauffeur and a fine looking old gentleman, who just rose up in his seat with a yell as he saw that baby carriage directly in the path of the machine.

"There wasn't even time for the chauffeur to move the wheel. I actually shut my eyes, thinking the smash was bound to come. I don't know how the lad did it, but when I opened them, just cold with horror, there he was lying on the ground and the baby carriage spinning safe and sound across the street."

"How badly was Pep hurt?" inquired Randy, his face pale with suspense.

"I heard someone in the crowd say his wrist was broken. It seems, at the risk of his own life, he had made that dash for the baby carriage and given it a push out of the way of the auto just as it was pouncing down upon it."

"Where is Pep now?" asked Randy.

"Why, that is the queer part of it. The pa.s.senger in the machine jumped out and picked him up. He lifted him into the auto. He didn't seem to want to go with the man, but they speeded up and I supposed they were going to bring him here, or to the nearest doctor, or the hospital. A police officer came up right after the accident on a motorcycle. He made some inquiries, took some notes and went away again. Just now he came back and said that he could find no trace of machine or boy, and that he had learned that the auto had been driven out of town on the west road as fast as it could go. Don't you see-kidnapped!"

"I don't!" cried Randy almost frantically, "Wasn't it enough that they ran him down, without carrying him away n.o.body knows where? Oh, I must get straight on his track-I must find Pep!"

"The police didn't," suggested the furniture man.

"I don't care for that-I will!"

"Mebbe I'd better give you my address," said his visitor. "There's been several accidents here lately. It's mostly tourists pa.s.sing through the town who are reckless about how they drive-rich old fellows who don't value life or limb, and get out of the way fast as they can when they've done any damage. I suppose the man who owns the machine that hurt your friend had heard of how one or two before him had been arrested and fined and forced to pay heavy damages, and just thought he'd grab up the lad and get him and himself out of the way before any investigation was made."

"It's shameful!" exclaimed Randy, wrought up now to the highest pitch of excitement and indignation. "Poor Pep! He may be suffering tortures and all those inhuman wretches think about is getting clear of being found out. I'll find him-I'll run down his kidnappers and bring them to account, even if the police can't."

The excited Randy did not even wait for the furniture man, but ran down the boardwalk and then in the direction of the man's store fast as he could. There was not much to learn there outside of what he already knew. His next call was at the police station. He was incensed at the indifference of the officers. They had investigated the accident as far as required, they claimed. The injured boy had been taken out of their jurisdiction and that seemed to lead them to believe that it ended their responsibility.

Randy knew the direction the red automobile had taken. He proceeded to a livery garage where motorcycles were on rent, and made himself known. He was well up in running the machine and was soon speeding on the trail of his missing chum, as he supposed and hoped. The west road out of Seaside Park was the best in the section. It ran to Brenton and beyond that to the large cities. There was every reason to believe that the kidnappers, if such they were, would favor a smooth, easily traversed highway over inferior dirt and stone roads that ran parallel.

Randy stopped at the first little town he came to and made some inquiries, but they availed him nothing. Five miles further on, however, he got a clue. Here were crossroads and a "Roadside Rest," a general halting place for road-men. Several autos were in view, their occupants taking lunch in a pavilion near the hotel or walking about stretching their limbs.

A man who wore a banded cap and a close fitting coat flitted around here and there in an important way, and Randy decided he must be a sort of major domo about the place.

"I would like to inquire about an automobile that pa.s.sed or stopped here within the past hour," spoke Randy, approaching this man.

"Where from? What number?" inquired the latter.

"I don't know," explained Randy, "but I will give you the best description I can from heresay. It was a big red car, and besides the chauffeur and pa.s.senger there was a boy about my age who had got his arm hurt--"

"Oh, I know now," interrupted the man-"you mean Colonel Tyson's car.

They stopped to get a wet towel soaked in ice water to wrap around the boy's wrist, I fancy, for he was holding one arm and seemed in pain."

"Yes, yes-that is my friend," declared Randy hastily. "Which way did the machine go?"

"To Brenton, of course, where it belongs."

"Then you know its owner?"

"Everybody knows him-Tyson, the millionaire. Used to be a big bond man in New York City."

"Thank you," said Randy and was off on his travels again. "I hope Pep isn't hurt badly," he mused. "He doesn't seem to be from what I hear; but why is this rich old fellow running away with him?"

It was quite late in the evening when Randy reached Brenton. He felt easier, now that he seemed sure of locating his chum, or at least running down the people who had carried him away. Once at Brenton there was no difficulty in finding the Tyson home. It was a very fine mansion with big grounds about it, but Randy was not at all awed by that. He ran his machine up to the stone porch and ascending the steps rang the door bell. A servant answered the summons.

"Is Mr. Tyson at home?" Randy inquired.

"He is at home, yes," replied the servant, studying critically the dust-covered caller. "Business with him?"

"I have. You just tell him I am Randy Powell, from Seaside Park, and I came about the automobile accident."

The servant left Randy standing in the vestibule until a portly, consequential-looking man appeared. He viewed Randy in a shrewd, supercilious way.

"What's your business?" he challenged crisply.

"Are you Mr. Tyson?"

"Never mind that. What are you after?"

"But I do mind it," retorted Randy boldly. "If you are Mr. Tyson, it was your machine that ran down a friend of mine back at Seaside Park a couple of hours ago, and I want to know what you have done with him."

Mr. Tyson looked a trifle fl.u.s.tered; then very much annoyed. He said:

"I've done nothing with him. He just came along. Say, I hope you haven't gone and stirred up a lot of notoriety and trouble for me along the line."

"Why should I-unless you deserve it."

"Ha-hum!" muttered the millionaire. "See here, come in. You look reasonable-more so than that young wildcat friend of yours unless he has his own way."

Mr. Tyson led Randy into a magnificently furnished room, nodded him to a chair and sat down facing him.