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252 "Not a mouthful, until we rescue Dora and Nellie," answered Tom.

"I'd like a drink—I'm as dry as a herring," said Sam.

"We'll look for water when we go down again," answered Dick.

Presently they descended once more, and, as a brook was handy, each drank his fill. Then Dick turned back in the direction from which they had come.

"Now what?" demanded Tom.

"I'm going to find out where they went, Tom. They didn't come this far, I am sure of that."

"Why?"

"Because I can't find their tracks in the road. The tracks of the runabout are there and that's all. They didn't come this far. They stopped or branched off somewhere between here and that bridge the road men are repairing."

"Why can't we search the road for tracks?" asked Sam.

"Just what I am going to do. We can go down every half mile or so and look the ground over."

This was done three times, and twice they saw no tracks. Then they located them once more, about half way between the bridge and Plankville.

"Perhaps we had better follow them up on foot