y be all right after all.
Betty and Amy may have gone in to the village, to send a telegram, or
something like that."

"What about?" asked Grace.

"The diamonds, of course. They may have struck a clue. Now look here,"
Allen went on quickly. "Will, as I understand it, you have found out to
whom those stones belong?"

"Well, yes; that is, almost. There's been a big smuggling job, and those
diamonds are part of the loot, or swag----"

"Such slang!" protested Grace.

"Don't worry about slang at a time like this," said Mollie. "Go on,
Will."

"No, we haven't time for all his story now," said Allen. "It is enough
for us to know that he has solved the mystery."

"This much of it, at any rate," Will assented, "though I'm in the dark
yet about the missing girls. As I said, I've been working my government
position for all it's worth. There was a big smuggling job lately, and
they were keeping it quiet. These diamonds are undoubtedly part of it,
and now if I can only help get some of the men it sure will be a feather
in my cap--a whole ostrich plume, in fact."

"Well, the rest of your story will keep," Allen remarked. "The next
thing is to trace the girls. Here's the story about them, Will," and he
rapidly told it as he had gathered it from Mollie and Grace.

"At the fisherman's hut, eh?" mused Will. "I always thought he had a
hand in the affair. But where did the girls go from there?"

"That's just what we don't know," Henry remarked. "I found Amy's
handkerchief in the cabin, or we wouldn't have known that much."

"It's a bare chance that they may have gone to the telegraph office in
the village, to send a wire to Betty's father," said Allen. "We'll try
there before we raise an alarm."

"But can we keep the news from Mrs. Nelson?" asked Mollie.

"She isn't home," Will said. "She's out calling somewhere. I've been
keeping bachelor's hall at Edgemere ever since I came from the train.
The maids told me where you were."

"We might stave off worrying Mrs. Nelson if one of us could get to town
and back before she returned," said Allen. "Of course if the girls
haven't been there we'll have to come out with the whole story."

"If we only could get to the village in a rush," said Mollie.

"An auto!" exclaimed Grace.

"There isn't one near enough----" began Will, when Grace cried:

"Percy Falconer! There he comes!"

The Deepdale johnny was coming down the road in his powerful machine.
With all his faults he had the