"Oh, well, I suppose you are right," said Jack. "But that bottle puts
a different light on the case, and it seems to me the fellow ought to
suffer for it."

"And do you know that old gypsy woman, Liza, met me and tried to scare
me into--or out of--identifying Tony? She made a most dramatic threat."

"Did, eh? I thought all the gypsies had cleared out!" exclaimed Jack.
"I'll go and get a warrant for her----"

"She took the eleven o'clock train," said Cora. "I saw her going to
the station as I came up the street. Oh, I wouldn't bother with the
poor old woman. This man is her brother, and naturally she wants to
keep him out of trouble."

"At the expense of trouble for others." Jack was determined to have
justice for his sister. "I'm going to make sure she and the whole
tribe have left the county. The lazy loafers!"

"Now, Jacky," and Ed smiled indulgently. "Didn't Liza tell your
fortune once, and say that you were going to marry the proverbial
butter tub? It is not nice of you to go back on a thing like that."

"Did it strike you, boys, that this man answers the description of the
man Mrs. Robbins was frightened by?" asked Cora.

"That's so," agreed Ed. "I'll bet he had his eye on something around
the bungalow--not Miss Robbins, of course."

"Well, it seems better that he is now safe," said Cora, with a sigh.
"I'm glad I am through with it."

"I hope you are," said Ed, and something in his manner caused Cora to
remember that remark. "I hope you are!"

But Cora was not through with it by a great deal--as we shall soon see.

CHAPTER IX

THE START

"Dear me! I did think something else would happen to prevent us from
getting off," said Bess, as she and Belle, with Cora, actually started
out to get the autos ready for the tour to the Berkshires. "And to
think that Miss Robbins can go with us!"

"I'm sure she will be a lot better than a nervous person like dear
mamma," said Belle. "Not but what we would love to have mamma go, but
she does not enjoy our kind of motoring."

"It does seem fortunate that Miss Robbins wanted to go," added Cora.
"I like her; she is the ideal type of business woman."

"Is she?" asked Belle, in such an innocent way that the other two girls
laughed outright.

"Oh, I suppose I ought to know," and Belle pouted; "but we always think
Cora knows so much better--and more."

"Which is another fact I have bumped into," said Cora.

"I just feel that we are going to