m," murmured the boy who had
forgotten the past.

"When I was home this trip," went on Mr. Crosscrab, "I heard my father
tell about a friend of his owning a farm not far away whose son is
missing. The boy had been gone for several months, but the father only
just learned of it."

"How was that?" asked Jimmy.

"This way: The farmer I speak of lived with his wife and son on a big
farm near my father's. One day, some time ago, all three started for
New York. The farmer and his wife had to go to Europe to settle up an
estate to which the farmer had fallen heir, and his wife went with him.
As they expected to travel about considerably, for part of the property
was in Germany and part in France, they decided not to take their son
with them. He was to be sent to a cousin in Chicago who would care for
him until his parents returned.

"The three arrived in New York, where the boy was to take a train for
Chicago and the father and mother embark on a ship for Europe. They
took their son to the Grand Central Station here, and, bidding him
farewell, left him just before he was to take his train as they had to
go aboard their vessel. That was the last they saw of their son. They
went to Europe, and as they had to travel about more than they expected
they lost considerable of their mail. They never got a letter from the
cousin in Chicago telling about their son, but they did not worry, for,
though they would liked to have heard from him, they thought he was all
right. They wrote a number of letters to him, but he never got them."

"Why not?" asked Dick, who was deeply interested.

"Because the boy never got to Chicago. He disappeared somewhere
between here and there, maybe after arriving in the western city. His
father and mother never knew it until they came back from Europe last
week. Then, in answer to a telegram to the cousin in Chicago asking
how their son was, there came a message saying he had never arrived.
The cousin, after receiving letters from the other side, which
indicated that the boy's parents believed their son was with her, had
tried to send them word that he had never arrived, but of course the
messages did not reach the boy's father and mother.

"So they never knew until they got back the other day that he has been
missing all this while. They are heartbroken, and they have hired
private detectives to find him if possible. This is the story my
father told me when I was home, and he showed me a