The Go Ahead Boys and the Mysterious Old House Part 16

"I believe he knows more about it than he has told us yet," declared John.

"All I know," said George solemnly, "is that some of the Go Ahead boys have reversed their name. Whenever they pluck up courage enough to go to the old house they always go there with fear and trembling. They walk as if they were traveling to their own funeral, but when they leave they make better time than I ever saw any of them make on the cinder path. I think that we ought to change the name. They aren't Go Ahead boys any more, they are the Go Backward or the Get Away boys."

"I notice," spoke up Grant, "that you didn't stand very long in the way of your own departure. At least I haven't noticed yet that you have been very far behind any of us when we ran from the place."

"Of course you haven't," said George. "I have to look after my guests, don't I? And if they are in such a hurry to leave, it wouldn't be very polite for me to stay."

"Don't leave on our account," said Fred dryly.

"I guess there isn't much danger that you wouldn't any other time,"

laughed George. "Perhaps you don't need any help after all. I was just trying to be polite."

"It's too great an effort," said Fred. "Don't try it again, but what are you going to do about that stolen car?"

"I'm going ahead," replied George.

"You certainly have a strange way of doing it then," retorted Fred. "It seems to me you were going all around it."

"Never you mind," said George. "We'll have that car back in our garage in less than a week, you mark my words and see if we don't."

"If we do," declared Grant, "it won't be any fault of ours. I guess your father will be the one that will find it."

"He will help," laughed George.

"Help," repeated Fred. "If we keep up the idiotic kind of a search we made to-day I guess he will have to do the whole thing."

"Perhaps he will," admitted George. "I'm not jealous. If we can only get that car back, that's about all I want."

"Well, I'm going to bed," declared John. "This has been my busy day."

"And you haven't told us yet what you were doing," suggested Grant.

"I guess I don't have to tell you," said John. "All three of you seem to know more about Uncle Sim and me and what we have been doing to-day than we do ourselves."

In a brief time the boys had withdrawn from the room and sought their beds.

The following morning when three of the Go Ahead boys went down stairs they discovered George talking over the telephone.

"Yes," he was saying. "That's all right. We'll start right after breakfast. Thank you very much. Good-by."

As he hung up the receiver George turned to his friends and said, "What would you fellows say if I told you that I had some word about the car?"

"We would all say that it was a good word, anyway," said Fred promptly.

"I was just talking to my father who told me that he had received a telegram this morning from Newburgh."

"That's in New York State," spoke up Fred.

"Correct," answered George. "I'm glad that for once in your life you are correctly informed."

"You want to be thankful," retorted Fred, "that once in your life you were able to appreciate the information I possess. I haven't a stingy thing about me, and I have been trying to be generous and give you some of the knowledge I have acquired, after long and painful effort, but you do not seem to appreciate my kind heart."

"My father says that the best thing for us to do will be to take the old car and go straight to Newburgh. We may have to stay all night, so you had better go prepared."

"We aren't going before breakfast, are we?" demanded Grant.

"No, my lean and hungry friend, we'll wait until the wants of the inner man are satisfied."

"Not that," said Fred. "Not that. You mean you will wait long enough for him to eat all he needs, but not all he wants. We aren't going to start from here before sunset, if you don't mean that."

Conversation was not as brisk after the boys entered the dining room, but when their breakfast had been eaten and they followed George as he led the way to the garage they were all as talkative as before.

"Going to take Uncle Sim with you?" inquired Grant.

"No," answered George. "I'll have to leave him to look after the place!"

"How long before we start?" inquired John.

"About three minutes. Are you going with us to-day?"

"You're right I am," declared John. "I stayed home yesterday to make my own investigations in the old Meeker House."

"And you have finished them all?" inquired George with a laugh.

"I can't say that the investigations are all finished, but I am. Yes, sir, I'm done. You don't catch me alone in that old house again."

"But I thought Uncle Sim went with you," suggested Fred.

"Uncle Sim? Uncle Sim? I would rather have an infant in arms with me.

Uncle Sim was scared before we were inside the house and after that everything he saw or heard all helped to scare him still more."

"He surely was scared last night," laughed Fred as he recalled the plight of the aged negro.

"He was that," said John solemnly, "but the worst of it is he scared me too. You know they say that a man doesn't run because he's scared, he's scared because he runs. I don't know much about that, but I guess it worked both ways with me. I know I was scared before I ran and I know I was scared a good deal worse after I began to run."

"Never mind, John," said George, "We'll have a fine ride to-day. We're going up through Ramapo Valley, through that place my father was telling you about where young Montagnie was taken prisoner so many years ago by the cowboys."

"I hope there won't be anybody there to make prisoners of us," declared Grant solemnly. "Do you ever have any hold-ups there now?"

"Not every day," explained George.

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Grant as he turned sharply upon George.

"Just what I say," repeated George.

"You don't really think we'll have any trouble, do you?" inquired Fred anxiously.

"I cannot say," said George slowly. "There comes a gentleman now who belongs to the fraternity. Perhaps he can tell you more about it than I." As he spoke the three boys glanced quickly toward the kitchen door.