und for
fares, had noticed that there was something out of the ordinary about
their presence. He was smiling when he held out his hands for the fare.

"Gave that young feller the slip pretty neatly back there where you got
aboard," he remarked. "Which of you was he after? Don't blame him
much--pretty young ladies like you!"

"Oh, he's just a stupid boy! We didn't want him riding with us," said
Dolly, "so we tried to make him think we weren't coming on this car,
and then jumped aboard when it was too late for him to follow us."

"I saw you--I saw you," chuckled the conductor. "So did Hank. He's my
motorman, and the best one on the line. That's why he started the car
to goin' so quickly. Lots of excitement around this way this morning."

"How's that?" asked Bessie.

"Oh, there was a city feller over to Jericho kickin' that a couple of
girls had stolen his automobile. Me, I don't believe it--didn't like his
looks. Serves him right, I say, if they did."

Bessie was afraid that Dolly would betray them by a laugh, but nothing
of the sort happened. It was quite plain that the conductor never
thought of connecting them with the two girls Holmes had charged with
the theft of the car. But, even so, the knowledge that he had made such
an accusation publicly worried Bessie. She did not know much of the law,
and she was afraid that she and Dolly might possibly have rendered
themselves liable to arrest by taking the car, even though they had
abandoned it almost at once, and Holmes had recovered it undamaged.

In that case, she feared getting out of the state might not save them.
They might, for all she knew, be arrested and taken back to Jericho,
where she would be in the power of Weeks. However, she decided not to
worry much about that, and when she mentioned her fears, Dolly laughed
at them.

"People in glass houses can't afford to throw stones," she said, sagely.
"Look here, Bessie, he might be able to make people believe that he had
a right to catch you, if he was acting for this nasty old Farmer Weeks.
But they haven't any right to touch me, and I believe they could make a
lot of trouble for Mr. Holmes for carrying me off. I remember that they
sent a man to prison for a long time not long ago for carrying off a
child that lived near us. I guess Mr. Holmes won't be very anxious to go
to law about his old car."

"Well, look here, Dolly, we're not quite out of the woods yet, you know.
Here's the station where we have to g