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a few seconds the boys did not know what to do. They stood on the steps looking blankly at one another. The woman observed them.

"Were you expecting to call on Mrs. Kenfield?" she asked sympathetically, as she observed they were strangers in New Yok. [sic]

"We came here to visit our chum, Ned Wilding," said Fenn.

"That must have been the boy who went off with Mrs. Kenfield," the woman went on. She described Ned so the chums had no difficulty in knowing it was he whom she had seen.

"You say he went off with Mrs. Kenfield?" asked Bart.

"Yes, just before noon yesterday. He was carrying two valises, one had a red mark on it."

"That's Ned's satchel," said Fenn. "That was some red paint he got on it the day we went over to Jones's Corners to play ball. One of the fellows daubed it on for a joke."

"And he didn't come back?" asked Bart.