ched----"

"Wait! Here it comes again," whispered Amy.

"Come and find me! Help! I am a prisoner! The red barn and the silo
with the two fallen trees."

How many times this was repeated the girls did not know. Suddenly
something cluttered up the airways--some sort of interference--and the
mystery of the ether died away. No matter what Jessie did to the
tuning coil she could not bring that strangely broadcasted message
back to their ears.

"What do you know about that?" demanded Amy, breathlessly.

"Why--why," murmured her chum, "we don't know much of anything about
it. Only, I am sure that was a girl calling. It was a youthful
voice."

"And I feel that it is Bertha Blair!" exclaimed Amy. "Oh, Jessie, we
must do something for her."

"How can we? How can we find her?"

"A red barn with a silo and two fallen trees. Think of it! Did you
ever see a place like that when you have been riding about the
country?"

"I--nev-er--did!" and Jessie shook her head despondently.

"But there must be such a place. It surely is not a hoax," said Amy,
although at first she had thought it was a joke. "And there is another
thing to mark, Jess."

"What is that?"

"The place where this girl is kept a prisoner has a broadcasting
station. You can't talk into a radio set like this. There has to be
electric power and a generator, and all that--such as Mark Stratford
showed us there at Stratfordtown."

"Of course."

"Then don't you think, Jessie, the fact that it is a broadcasting
plant where the girl is imprisoned must narrow the inquiry a good
deal?"

"How clever you are, dear," declared Jessie. "But a red barn with a
silo and two fallen trees! Why, Amy! we don't know in which direction
to look. Whether to the north, south, east or west!"

"No-o. I suppose----Oh, wait, Jess!" cried the excited Amy. "We don't
really know where those women took that girl we saw carried off. They
drove out the boulevard as far as we could see them. But, do you
remember, we met that Mrs. Bothwell again in the big French car that
very evening?"

"When we went to Parkville with Nell and the Brandons!" Jessie said
eagerly. "I remember she passed us. You pointed her out to me."

"And she turned out of the very road we took to go to Parkville," said
Amy, with confidence. "I believe that red barn with the silo must be
over beyond Parkville."

"It might be so," admitted her chum, thoughtfully. "I have never been
through that section of the state.