CHAPTER XX

AN EXCITING CHASE

The Bobbsey twins stopped eating and looked one at the other. What could it mean—this hurried rush of some one up the steps? Then Flossie spoke.

“Maybe it’s the old woman bringing back Baby May,” she whispered.

“If it is, I’m going to catch her!” declared Freddie, getting ready to slip down from his chair.

“Sit still, children,” ordered Mrs. Bobbsey.

Bert acted as though, he, too, would like to see who it was, for, as yet, the caller was not in view. But a look from his father kept Bert in his seat. He looked at Nan in a disappointed manner.

“It’s Jim Denton,” announced Mr. Meekin, as he saw the hurrying visitor through the open door. “Come right in, Jim!” he called. “Had your supper? If you haven’t—”

“Oh, I ate long ago,” announced the caller, who was the constable, or chief policeman, for Pine Hill. “What’s all the excitement about?” he asked. “Have you had another horse stolen, Pete?”

“No, not a horse this time. It’s worse—a little baby,” said Mr. Meekin. “Didn’t they tell you at the post-office, where I telephoned to you?”

“No, they didn’t say what it was. Just said something was missing over here and for me to hurry. I did, as soon as I could get a bite to eat. But what do you mean—a baby taken? Is it lost?”

“Worse’n that, Jim,” said the farmer. “It’s a kidnapping case. You want to do your best on this!”

“I will,” promised the constable. “Tell me all about it.”

“I’ll let Mr. Bobbsey do that,” said Mr. Meekin. “It’s his baby; or at least he and his wife took care of it. And it was stolen out of the carriage, right in my yard, Jim, with folks on the side porch. Greatest mystery we ever had here! The children left the baby a moment and—”

“Say, I thought you were going to let Mr. Bobbsey tell the story,” remarked Jim, with a smile, as he looked at his watch. “If this is a kidnapping case the sooner we get on the trail and chase after the kidnapper the better.”

“That’s right. You tell him, Mr. Bobbsey,” begged Mr. Meekin. “I get so excited thinking about it that my tongue runs away with me.”

Then the story was told, the Bobbsey twins telling their share in the sorrowful affair of how Baby May was stolen right out of her carriage, when she was left alone but for a moment.

“Hum!” remarked Constable Jim Denton, when the story was finished. “It is very strange. I’ll take a look at the place.”

“You won’t find any clews there, because we looked,” said Bert, with a very grown-up air.

“Well, maybe, I won’t. But I’ll take a look, just the same,” replied the constable.

They all went with him while he looked over the place where the carriage had been left just before Baby May was stolen from it. As Bert had said, there was little in the way of clews, or anything to tell who the kidnapper was or which way she had gone.

That it was the strange woman with the faded shawl and the green umbrella, every one felt sure.

“I’ve heard something about that old woman hanging around these parts,” the constable said, “but I’ve never laid eyes on her. This time I hope I do.”

“I’m going to help in the search,” said Mr. Bobbsey. “My son and I will go off in our auto, but of course we’ll act under your orders, Mr. Denton, as you are in charge.”

“Well, I don’t know that I have any special orders,” the constable said slowly. “The main thing is to catch that old woman and get back the baby.”

“Oh, yes, I want Baby May back!” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey.

“And I want her, too,” said Flossie, with tears in her eyes.

“Have you an automobile, Mr. Denton?” asked the father of the Bobbsey twins.

“Well, some folks call it that, and then again they speak of it as a tin Lizzie,” chuckled the constable. “It gets me where I want to go and back again. Well, we’d better start if we’re going,” he added.

“That’s what I think,” agreed Mr. Bobbsey. “And as there is no telling which way this old woman has gone, one of us can go up the main road, and the other down the main road until we get some sort of clew.”

“A good idea,” said the constable. “It ought not to be hard to find this old woman. Traveling with a baby, as she is, some one is bound to take notice of her. It’ll be an easier case than your lost horse, Pete,” he said to Mr. Meekin.

“I’m sure I hope so,” said Mrs. Meekin, who had learned to love Baby May, as had every one else.

After arranging to telephone in as soon as he should have any news, Constable Jim Denton went off in his little automobile, going up the road, or toward the next town of Rosemount.

“Well, Bert, I guess we’d better start on our part of the chase,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his son.

“Do you think it safe to take Bert with you?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

“Why not?” asked her husband.

“Oh, Mother, I want to go!” pleaded Bert. “Crickity grasshoppers—”

“But your father may be on the road all night—or at least away all night, my dear.”

“I can stay up all night, Mother!” insisted Bert.

“He’ll be all right,” said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. “And I may need him to help me. We sha’n’t travel quite all night. If we get too far away to return by, say, eleven o’clock, we’ll stay at a hotel all night. Don’t worry, Mother!”

He kissed his wife good-bye, and kissed Nan, Flossie and Freddie.

“I’ll bring back Baby May!” said Bert firmly, as he, too, kissed his mother.

“I’m sure I hope so,” murmured Mrs. Bobbsey.

Mr. Bobbsey and Bert took the “down road,” as it was called, leading to the city of Millville, though the city itself was several miles away. However, there were small towns and villages in between, and it was thought that some news might be obtained in one of these of the old woman and Baby May.

“Maybe she might go off into the woods and camp there, like a gypsy,” suggested Bert, as he and his father started off in the automobile.

“No, I hardly think so,” replied Mr. Bobbsey. “A little baby like May would not fare very well if kept out all night in a camp in the woods—that is, unless the woman had a tent, and I don’t believe she has that.”

“But where has she been staying all the while she’s been spying on us and trying to get the baby back?” asked Bert.

“That’s what I can’t find out,” said his father. “She must have lived somewhere around here, and yet we can’t get a trace of her. If she boarded with any of the farmers we would have heard about it.”

“Maybe she found an old hut or cabin, and is staying in that,” said Bert.

“Perhaps,” his father admitted. “Well, we’ll inquire all along as we go, and we may find her.”

They stopped at the first house they passed after leaving the home of Mr. Meekin. But the people there had not seen a woman and baby going past. They asked all sorts of questions, wanting to know all about the kidnapping, but Mr. Bobbsey did not have time to say much. As soon as he found out they could tell him nothing he hurried on with Bert.

It was the same at the next half dozen houses they stopped at—no one had seen the kidnapper.

“But we must keep on with the search,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

“Of course,” agreed Bert. “I want to get back Baby May!”