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 recollect having seen any one resembling Mr. Hardy near the farm at any time within the past week. He had been working in the fields, he said, and would probably have noticed any strangers on the road.

So the boys returned to Bayport, puzzled and downhearted over the failure of their search. They could not imagine where Fenton Hardy could have gone if he had not been near the Kane farm.

"Something has happened to him, I'm sure," said Frank. "It isn't like dad to stay away this long without sending some word."

"Perhaps he did write that note."

"He would have explained a little more. And he would have put in the secret sign."

The fact that the Hardy boys were searching for their father gradually became known throughout Bayport, and one evening a thick-set, broad-shouldered man presented himself at the front door of the Hardy home and asked for the boys. Mrs. Hardy bade him step inside and he waited in the hall, nervously twisting his cap in his hands.

When Frank and Joe came out the stranger introduced himself as Sam Bates.

"I'm a truck driver," he told them. "The reason I came around to see you was because I heard you were lookin' for your father."

"Have you seen him?" asked Frank eagerly.