"He's gone! And you don't know where? Left ten minutes ago? Oh dear!"

Slowly she hung up the receiver. There seemed nothing else to do. She came out of the booth, her face showing her disappointment.

"He's gone, Ruth," she said. "What had we better do?"

"I think the only thing to do is to go back home and wait for him. He may be there now. Or his mother or Billy may. Come on home."

It was Ruth who was directing now, and Alice, after a moment of thought, saw that this was the only thing to do. Quickly they retraced their steps to the apartment house. Without stopping to enter their own flat they knocked on the Dalwood door. A few seconds of anxious waiting brought no answer.

"Not home yet!" exclaimed Alice. "Oh, what a shame."

Ruth turned to their own flat. Entering with a pa.s.s-key she saw at a glance that their father had not come home. The note for him was still on the table.

Then, as puzzled and disappointed, the two girls stood in the center of the room, they heard someone coming up the stairs that led to their flat. A second later and a merry whistle broke out.

"There he is--that's Russ!" cried Alice, joyfully. "I'll tell him; no--you go!" she added hastily, thrusting her sister before her into the hallway.

The whistle broke off into a discord as Russ saw Ruth standing waiting for him. Something in her face must have told him something was the matter, for he came up the remaining steps three at a time.

"What is it? What has happened?" he asked. "Is someone hurt?"

"No, it's your patent--the model. Some men--Alice and I overheard them in the restaurant--we've been trying to get you on the 'phone--I--we----"

Then Alice broke in.

"They're after your moving picture machine patent, Russ! They're going to get it to-night--Simp Wolley! You've got to hurry!"

Between them the girls quickly told what they had overheard.

Russ's eyes snapped.

"So that's the game; is it?" he cried. "Well, I'll stop them! I'm mighty glad you told me. My patent model, the drawings and everything are at Burton's machine shop. It isn't far from here. I'll go right away--in a taxicab. Do you----" he hesitated a moment. "Do you want to come?"

"We might be able to help," suggested Alice to Ruth. "At any rate, we'll have to give evidence against those men if they get them. Shall we go, Ruth?"

"I--I think so--yes."

"Bravo!" whispered Alice in her ear. "That note to daddy will answer.

You'd better leave another in place of the one we wrote to you, Russ."

"I will," he exclaimed as he entered his own flat. "But mother and Billy won't be home until late, anyhow. They're going to stay to supper with relatives. Still, I'll explain in case I should be delayed."

Quickly he dashed off another note for his mother, and then, with the two girls, he hurried down to the street. There was a taxicab stand just around the corner, and the three were quickly on their way to the machine shop, while Ruth and Alice took turns giving more details of the scene in the restaurant.

"Here we are!" announced Russ, a little later, as the cab drew up, with a screeching of brakes, in front of a rather dingy building. "I only hope we're in time, and that Burton hasn't gone yet."

He jumped out of the cab, leaving Ruth and Alice sitting there.

Frantically he threw open the door and rushed up the shop stairs.

"Oh, I do hope he is in time," breathed Ruth, softly.

"So do I," spoke Alice. "I wonder how men can be so mean as to want to take what isn't theirs?"

"I don't know, dear. Oh, hasn't this been an exciting day?"

"I should say it had. If ever--there's Russ now!" she interrupted herself to exclaim. "Oh, Ruth. It looks as though we were too late!"

For Russ, with a dejected look on his face, was crossing the pavement toward the cab.

"It--it's gone," he said brokenly. "Simp Wolley was here a half-hour ago and got it!"

"But how could he?" asked Alice in surprise. "Who gave it to him?"

"Mr. Burton. There was a forged order, supposed to be from me, and the machinist handed over the model," and Russ extended a crumpled and grimy bit of paper.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE PURSUIT

"How did it happen, Russ?"

"Where have the men gone with the model?"

"Can't you get some trace of them?"

Thus Ruth and Alice questioned their friend, as he stood at the open window of the taxicab, looking at the crumpled paper.

"I--I don't understand it all," he confessed. "After I knew those fellows were after my patent I cautioned Mr. Burton about letting any strangers see it."

A figure came into the doorway of the machine shop. It was that of an elderly man, with steel-rimmed spectacles. His face was grimy with the dirt of metal.

"I'm awfully sorry, Russ," he said, contritely. "But of course I thought the note was from you, and gave up the model."

"Did Simp Wolley get it?" asked Alice, eagerly.

"No, a uniformed messenger boy came for it," explained Russ. "That was it; wasn't it, Mr. Burton?"

"Yes. And I had no suspicions. You know you had said you might want the model some time in a hurry, to demonstrate to possible buyers, and of course when the boy came with the note I supposed you had sent him. I'm not familiar enough with your handwriting to know it," he added.

"No, I suppose not," admitted Russ. "And yet if you had been this might have deceived you. It is very like my writing. I guess Wolley must have had a sample to practice on."

"It all seemed regular," went on Mr. Burton. "I was working away, making some of the finished appliances from your model and drawings, when the boy brought the note. He was a regular messenger boy, I could tell that. And the note only asked for the model--not for any of the finished machines, of which I had two. He didn't even want the drawings, or I might have been suspicious."

"They won't need the drawings as long as they have the model. They can make drawings themselves," spoke Russ.