"Laura," said her brother, "I don"t know--nor does Lance, or Short and Long--whether the fellow we suspect had anything to do with that accident or not."
"Oh!"
"And we don"t want to get him in wrong."
"Who is it?" demanded his sister, bluntly.
"No. We won"t tell anybody who it is we suspect until we make further investigations."
"I declare, you are as mysterious as a regular detective! And suppose the police do make inquiries?"
"They will, of course,"
"And what will you boys tell them?"
"Pooh!" returned Chet, going on to his room to dress, "they won"t ask us because they don"t know we know anything about it"
"I guess you don"t know much!" shouted Laura after him before he closed his door.
It was the same when Jess Morse met Lance Darby on the way to Sunday School.
"Ho, Launcelot!" she cried. "Tell us all the news--that is a good child.
Who was that awful person who ran down the man last night? I hear from Dr.
Agnew that they had to patch the poor victim up a good deal at the hospital. Did you boys find the guilty party?"
"I don"t know that we did," said Darby. "You see, n.o.body seemed to see the license number of the automobile."
"But didn"t Short and Long have suspicions?"
"Well, what are suspicions?" demanded the boy. "We all agreed to say nothing about it unless we have proof. And we haven"t any proof--as yet."
"Why, I believe you are "holding out" on your friends, Lance," declared Jess, in surprise. "For shame!"
"Aw, ask Chet--if you must know!" exclaimed Lance, hurrying away.
As it chanced it was Bobby Hargrew who attempted to play inquisitor with Short and Long, meeting the boy with the youngest Long, Tommy, on the slippery hill of Nugent Street Tommy was so bundled up in a "Teddy Bear"
costume that he could scarcely trudge along, and he held tightly to his brother"s hand.
"For goodness" sake!" exclaimed Bobby, when she saw Tommy slipping all over the icy sidewalk, "what is the matter with that boy?"
"He hasn"t got his sea-legs on," grinned Short and Long.
"You mean to tell me he is nearly five years old and can walk no better than _that?_" exclaimed Bobby teasingly. "Why, we have a little dog at home that isn"t even a year old yet, and he can ran right over this ice. He can walk twice as good as Tommy does."
"Hoh!" exclaimed that youngster defensively. "That dog"s got twice as many legs as I have."
"Right you are, Kid!" chuckled his brother. "He got you there, Clara."
"And did you boys get that man who ran the poor fellow down on Market Street last night?" demanded Bobby, with interest. "Did you have him arrested?"
"No. What do you suppose? We"re not going around snitching to the police,"
growled Short and Long.
"But if that man at the hospital is seriously hurt----"
"Oh, we"re not sure it"s the right car," said the boy, and evidently did not wish to talk about it.
"Billy Long!" exclaimed the girl. "Are you boys trying to defend the guilty person?"
"Aw----"
"Suppose that man at the hospital dies?"
"Pshaw! He wasn"t hurt as bad as all that."
"How do you know?"
"Because I"ve been to the hospital to find out He"s got a broken leg and a broken head----"
"Is he conscious yet?" demanded Bobby Hargrew quickly.
"No-o. They say he doesn"t know anybody--and n.o.body knows who he is."
"Now you see!" cried the girl "Maybe he will die! And you boys will let the man who did it get away."
"Oh, he won"t get away," grumbled Short and Long. "We know where to find him when we want to."
"You"d better let the police know where to find him," said Bobby tartly.
"You"re not the police, Bobby Hargrew!" returned Short and Long, grinning and going on with Tommy.
The girls, of course, got together and compared notes and decided that the boys were "real mean, so now!" To pay Chet and Lance and Billy Long for being so secretive about the person they suspected of having caused the injury to the stranger Sat.u.r.day evening, the three girls went alone that Sunday afternoon to the hospital to inquire after the injured man.
And there they met Janet Steele again. The Red Cross girl had been making inquiries, too, about the same case.
"It really is a very serious matter," Janet said to her new friends. "The man who knocked him down should be found. Although the doctors think he has no internal injuries after all, there is a compound fracture which will keep him in bed for a long time, and in addition he seems unable to give any satisfactory explanation of who he is or where he comes from."
"Goodness!" exclaimed Jess Morse. "Do you mean he has lost his mind?"
"Merely mislaid it," said Janet with a smile. "Or, at least, he cannot remember his name and address."
"Didn"t he have any papers about him that explain those points?" asked Laura.
"That seems to be odd, too," said Janet "No. Not a mark on his clothing, either. But he was plentifully supplied with money, and all the bills were brand new."
"Oh!" exclaimed Laura. "That reminds me. That funny bill he pa.s.sed on Chet was brand new, too. I wonder if all his money is queer?"
"What do you mean?" asked Janet, wonderingly. "Is the man a criminal, do you think?"