Dr. Robbins. "Now to find
Hemlock Bend."

Guide books and time-tables were hastily consulted, but evidently the
place was too small for printed mention.

Dr. Robbins was in despair. That dreadful young man! Gone to some
out-of-the-world place to rescue some absurd girl! And now he had
actually gotten away!

Belle, Bess, Betty and Hazel had just returned from a melancholy
ramble. Belle was better--really better now than some of her
companions, who had been bearing up well under the strain--but all the
young faces were very sad. The boys had telephoned that they had some
hope for developments in the clew they had gone away to investigate,
but that was very meager encouragement. The boys always had hope--over
the 'phone. Dr. Robbins told them part of the story.

"Oh, the idea!" exclaimed Belle. "Isn't that like a tale of the olden
times--for a young man to run away to rescue a lady! Now, what in the
world is she being rescued from? Exactly. That's the impossible
Leland. Never says who she is, what she is, or what about her. Now,
as if we could put a story like that together!" She sank back as if
mentally exhausted from the effort to "put it together."

"But we must find Hemlock Bend," said Betty. "I feel as if I could lay
my finger on every bend in the White Mountains."

"All concentrated on your particular person," said Hazel, with a smile.
"Well, I feel that way myself, only you being smaller, Betty, have a
more compact concentration."

"I think I have it," exclaimed Mr. Rand, as he returned with his hands
full of pamphlets. "It is near--near----"

"Let me look, Daddy," interrupted Betty. "I can see better, perhaps."

He handed her one little green booklet. She glanced over it and
mumbled a lot of stuff through which she had to pass in order to get at
what was wanted. Then she paused. "Oh, yes, there's a place on the
Woodland Branch railroad called Hemlock Grove. Of course, that must be
around the corner from Hemlock Bend."

They all agreed that it must be. Then to take the trip--they would not
wait for three days. Mr. Rand said that would be absurd, but when the
boys should return to the hotel, which would be that afternoon, they
would all start out in their cars. They would make a double hunt--for
Cora and for Leland.

"It is a long trip," said Mr. Rand, "but I will take the big car, and
Benson--couldn't do it without Benson--and we will be able to ride or
to walk almost the lengt