rm and white face. Moreover, I can hardly bear the thought
of leaving him in the hands of that frosted bottle of cheap Cologne."

Katherine laughed at the figure.

"You've painted her picture right," she said warmly. "Come on, let's
follow her. We have as much right to go that way as she has, and we must
go someway anyway."

"All right; lead the way," Hazel said with smiling emphasis on the "way"
to direct attention to Katherine's phonetic repetition.

The latter started along the path that had been taken by the girl and
her frightened prisoner, and Hazel followed. The two in advance were by
this time out of sight beyond a thicket of bushes and small trees, but
Katherine and Hazel did not hasten their steps, as they preferred to
trust to the path to guide their steps rather than the view of the
persons they sought to follow. In fact, they preferred to trust to the
element of chance rather than run a risk of arousing the suspicion of
the cold-faced girl with the perfume.

Only once did they catch sight of the boy and his captor in the course
of their hesitating pursuit, and this view was so satisfactory that they
stopped short in order to avoid possible detection if the girl should
look back. A turn in the path brought them to the hip of the elevation
where the ground began to slope down to the lake and near the downward
bend of this beach-hill was a rustic cottage, with an equally rustic
garage to the rear and on one side a cleared space for a tennis court.
At the door of the cottage was the girl with the pleated skirt and white
sailor hat, still leading the now submissive but quivering youth.

"Fine!" Katharine exclaimed under her breath. "Things have turned out
just right. If that should prove to be the Graham home we couldn't wish
for better luck. Come on; let's back through the timber and approach
this place from another direction. They mustn't suspect that we followed
that girl and the little boy."

CHAPTER XII.

THE MAN IN THE AUTO.

Cautiously Katherine and Hazel withdrew from the path into a thicket and
thence retreated along the path by which they had approached the house.
They continued their retreat to the point where the path joined the
automobile road and where grew the thicket within which they had
discovered the frightened runaway child.

"Now, I tell you what we ought to do," Katherine said. "We ought to
follow this road about a mile, maybe, to get a view of the lay of the
land and th