of the younger scouts in my
especial care and cannot afford to leave camp on a wild goose chase."

"Motor-bike carries two," suggested Chick-chick. "Apple go with me?"

"Yes. You and Corliss may go. Don't do anything foolish. If you overtake
the car get the peddler to stop. If Glen is a captive use your coolest
judgment about interfering. The man may be armed and it would be far
better to push on to the nearest town and get help than to risk a
bullet. Of course, if Glen should be going of his own wish you must just
come back and tell me."

"No fear of that," said Spencer.

"What shall we do if he isn't to be seen and the peddler won't let us
look inside?" asked Apple.

"A scout's judgment and ingenuity ought to be worth something in such a
case," replied Mr. Newton. "I prefer not to instruct you. I'm not
sending you two big fellows out as messenger boys but as scouts. Use all
the knowledge and courage and skill that you have, but don't take
unnecessary risks."

CHAPTER XIII

THE CHASE ON THE MOTOR-BIKE

The boys felt the importance of their commission as they rode away from
the camp on the motorcycle. They had no difficulty picking up the track
of the autocar. It ran directly to the village and on through.

"Let's find out what the old car looks like," suggested Apple. "Maybe,
too, they can tell us just how long ago it passed."

There was no difficulty in getting a description of the car--one
enthusiastic person even went so far as to detail all the various
articles advertised by J. Jervice for sale.

"How many people were riding?" asked Apple.

"A little man at the steering wheel and a big fellow perched up next to
him."

"Didn't you see a boy on it?"

"No boy anywhere unless he was inside. Of course we couldn't tell about
inside. It's jest like a wagon in a circus parade--nice paint on the
outside an' the inside left to yore 'magination."

"Two men on the wagon--one a big fellow!" exclaimed Apple, as they left
the fount of information. "We'll have to be pretty careful what we do."

"Sure will," agreed Chick-chick. "They got over an hour's start, so
we'll have to go some--Hello, have they been stopping here?"

"Looks like it. There's marks that show a man got off the car."

"The big man," said Chick-chick. "Look where the tracks are headed,
Apple. He's gone back to the village. Didn't get back on car at all.
Good for us."

Chick-chick had correctly guessed. After J. Jervice and his car w