“I think it is just such a letter as one of those young gypsies might write,” answered Dave’s father. “Most of them have some education, but not a great deal.”
Both Mr. Wadsworth and Dave’s father had had a great deal of business 佛山桑拿会所 to attend to during the past few weeks, and Dunston Porter had been kept busy assisting Mr. Basswood in turning the vacant land on the outskirts of Crumville into building plots and offering them for sale. But since the unexpected and mysterious disappearance of the two girls all thoughts of business had been brushed aside.
“Dave and Roger ought to be here almost any time now,” remarked Dunston Porter. “But what good their
coming on the scene is going to do, I can’t surmise.”
“You can’t blame them for wanting to come after receiving such news,” remarked Mr. Wadsworth. “Dave, I know, thinks a great deal of his sister, and you all know that he and Jessie think a great deal of each other.”
“Yes. And I know that Roger has his eye on Laura,” answered the girl’s father. “And she thinks a great deal of the young man.”
At that 佛山桑拿会所上门 moment the telephone rang, and Dunston 197Porter went to answer it. A telegram was telephoned to him.
“Dave and Roger are now on their way from Albany,” he announced. “They will be here in about an hour. I think I’ll run down to the depot in the auto and meet them.” And so it was arranged.
There were no passengers as eager as Dave and Roger to leave the train when it rolled into the little station at Crumville. Dunston
Porter was on hand, and they gazed eagerly at his face to see if it bore any signs of good news.
“No, I’ve got nothing to cheer you with,” he announced, after shaking hands and conducting them to the auto, into the tonneau of which they pitched their suit-cases. “We haven’t the least idea where they are or how they disappeared.”
“But, Uncle Dunston, you must have some news!” pleaded Dave.
“At least you can tell 佛山桑拿干磨水磨服务 us how and when they left home and what was the last word you had from them,” said Roger.
“They made up their minds to go to Boston to visit Jessie’s aunt, Mrs. Brightling, just about two weeks ago,” answered Dave’s uncle. “They spent two or three days in getting ready; and then a week ago this Wednesday they started on the trip, Mrs. Wadsworth and the chauffeur taking them down to the depot. They carried one 198trunk, which was checked through to Boston, and Laura had a suit-case, and both of the girls had handbags. They had through tickets to Boston, and got on the train; and that was the last we saw or heard of them.
“We had expected to get a letter from Laura, and the Wadsworths expected a letter from Jessie, stating that they had arrived safely. When no letters came, Mrs. Wadsworth got nervous, and as a result she asked 佛山夜生活888论坛 her husband to send a telegram to find out what was wrong.
“The telegram had just been sent when a telegram was received from Mrs. Brightling, asking how it was that the girls had not come on as expected. Then she telegraphed a little later that she had not seen them nor heard from them.
“A search was made at the depot in Boston, and the trunk was found just as it had been checked from here. The suit-case the girls had kept with them on the train.”
“But didn’t they meet anybody on the train who knew them?” questioned Dave.
“No one that we have heard from up to the present time. We have been making a number of inquiries, and, of course, expect to make more. You see, the people they met on the train were going away from Crumville, so that makes it difficult to follow them up. And besides that, so 199much time was lost in the 广州佛山桑拿全套 first place, that I suppose a good many people would forget, even if they had seen them on the train.”
“But didn’t they have parlor-car chairs?” questioned Dave.
“No. The train had only one parlor car on it, and that was crowded. Mr. Wadsworth had telegraphed for seats, but there had been some mix-up, and as a consequence the girls had to put up with seats in one of the day coaches. Mrs. Wadsworth told them they had better wait for another train, but they laughed and said that 佛山桑拿论坛蒲友 they would rather go into one of the day coaches than lose the time.”
During this conversation Dunston Porter had started up the automobile and was on the way to the Wadsworth mansion. In a few minutes more they rolled up to the piazza, and there Dave’s father and Mr. Wadsworth came out to greet them, followed by the trembling form of Professor Potts.
It 佛山桑拿那里好 was a sorry home-coming for our hero, and Roger was equally affected. They shook hands with those who were there to greet them, and for the moment the emotions of all were so deep that nobody trusted himself to speak. All went inside, and it was old Caspar Potts who broke the silence.
200“If I were only a younger man!” he said in a trembling voice. “Davy, it’s up to you to do something—you and your friend Roger.”
“I’m going to do it if I possibly can, Professor,” answered 佛山夜生活论坛邀请码 the youth, huskily.
All sat down and the Crumville folks gave to the young civil engineers all the particulars they had concerning the strange disappearance of the two girls.
“And are you quite sure it is the work of those gypsies?” queried Roger.
“I don’t see who else would play such a dirty trick,” responded Mr. Wadsworth.
“Dave has another idea,” went on the senator’s son.
“What is that?” asked Dunston Porter quickly, while the others looked up questioningly.
“I’ve been wondering if Nick Jasniff wasn’t connected with this affair,” answered Dave.
“Nick Jasniff!” exclaimed Oliver Wadsworth. “You mean the fellow I helped to put in prison?”
“Yes.”
“What makes you think he could have had anything to do with it?”
“I’ll tell you,” answered our hero. And thereupon he related how he and Roger had first seen Nick Jasniff in 佛山桑拿按摩图 the vicinity of the construction camp, and how, later on, he had been instrumental in having Jasniff sent away from the camp, and 201then how he had met the rascal on the road, had a fight, and lost the two letters and the contents of his pocketbook.
“I ought to have written about this, but I didn’t want to worry you folks too much,” he concluded.
“Dave, you may have struck the truth!” burst out Mr. Wadsworth excitedly. “It would be just like that rascal to do such a thing as this. And besides that, you must remember one thing—Jasniff was not pardoned.”
“Not pardoned!” burst out our hero and Roger simultaneously.
“No, he was not pardoned,” answered the jewelry manufacturer. “His case came up before the Board of Pardons, and after a hearing they recommended a pardon for him to the governor. But before the governor signed the 佛山桑拿按摩一条龙服务 order to let him go, Jasniff made his escape from the prison and ran away. Then, of course, the recommendation for a pardon was torn up and thrown in the waste-basket; so if the fellow is ever captured he can go back to prison and serve his term over again.”
CHAPTER XX BEGINNING THE GREAT SEARCH
“Well, what do you know about that!” cried Roger.
“No wonder Nick Jasniff wanted to leave the vicinity of the construction camp,” remarked Dave. “He must have reasoned that
sooner or later we would learn that he hadn’t been pardoned and was wanted at the prison.”
“That must be it,” answered the senator’s son.