So we swung into the woods road, with Grove coming along behind us in the flivver, and just as we reached the place where the woods began, we met Harry and Brent’s patrol, hiking along.

“All right, hop in,” Brent said.

“Well—I’ll—be—jiggered,” Harry began.

“Hop in,” Brent said, “and don’t stand there talking, if you want a place to sleep to-night. You couldn’t even run a carpet-sweeper.”

“You’re a wonder, old man,” Harry said; “what was the matter with her? I tried everything.”

“Did you say please?” Brent asked him.

please

“No, but I said about everything else,” Harry said.

“Do you want to run that Ford or shall I?” Brent asked him.

“Stay where you are,” Harry said. “I’ll run the Ford. Go ahead, we’ll follow.”

Some of the kids piled into the small car and the rest of them came in with us. We were all separated together.

“This treasure-hunt is developing into a parade,” Brent said. “Look behind, will you? He can’t even get the flivver started.”

But pretty soon we saw them coming along, quite a distance behind us.

I looked at the clock alongside the speedometer and saw that it was nearly two o’clock in the morning. “Time flies,” I said.

Grove said, “Sure, it should be arrested for speeding.”

CHAPTER XIII—WE ARE IMPLICATED

I guess we had been going about fifteen minutes when Brent said, “Let’s see those papers you were telling us about.”

Pee-wee felt in the side pocket and then in the opposite side pocket and then began shouting, “They’re not here! They’re not here! The papers are stolen!”

“Good night,” I said, “the plot grows thicker.”

“Maybe Harry has them in his pocket,” Grove said.

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