it?" gurgled the driver. "They can't
walk, can they;--not at six months? Not far, anyhow?"

"It--it was took!" sputtered his brother between chattering teeth.

Another moment of scared silence. Then the driver rallied his awed
faculties. Stepping on the self-starter, he brought the runabout into
motion, and headed down the road.

"Where are you goin'?" queried the other. "No use a-keepin' on, this
d'rection. It--"

"If it was took," answered the driver, truculently, "'twasn't took by
no car. We'd 'a' heard a car or we'd 'a' saw it. If it had been took by
two or three folks a-walkin', we'd 'a' heard 'em blat to each other
when they seen the kid layin' there. That means it was took by one
person, all alone. He didn't pass us, while we was workin'. Then,
unless he's took to the fields, he's a-goin' the same way we are. An'
we're due to overhaul him. There'll only just be one of him; and
there's two of us. I ain't aimin' to lose my slice of that two
thousand; without hittin' a single lick to get it. If he--SUFFERIN'
PINK SNAKES!"

In his sudden dismay, he drove down both feet on the pedals. The
indignant car stalled. Through the blackness ahead, the white ray from
the lamps had picked up a weird object. And the two brethren stared at
it, slack-jawed.

Walking sedately on, in front of the stalled runabout, and in the exact
centre of the dusty road, moved an animal. Huge and formless it bulked,
as it receded into the fainter glow of light. It might have been
anything from a lion to a bear; in that uncertain glimmer. But, the
lamps' rays played strongly enough on one detail of the apparition to
identify it, past doubt, to both the dumfounded onlookers. They saw,
clearly enough, a white bundle suspended from the monster's
jaws;--unquestionably the bundle which had been laid behind the alder.

For perhaps ten seconds the men sat moveless, gaping goggle-eyed. Then,
the driver murmured in a faraway voice:

"Did you--did you--was you fool enough to think you seen anything? Was
you, Eitel?"

"I-I sure seen SUTHIN', Roodie," quavered Eitel. "Suthin' with--with
the kid in its mouth. It--"

"That's good enough for me!" announced the heroic Roodie, stamping
again on the self-starter.

"If we both seen it, then it was THERE. And I'm goin' after it."

In another brace of seconds the lights once, more picked up the dark
animal with its white bundle. Eitel shrank back in his seat. But Roodie
put on another notch of gas. A