it was turned away from her. But suddenly he
opened the door of his car.
“I’m goin’ inside and get a couple bottles of
ginger ale,” she heard him grumble to his com-
panions.
As he stepped from the automobile and turned,
Nancy saw his face. He was the mysterious man
who had spoken to her that day on the train!
In view of the telephone call George had re-
ceived, Nancy did not wish to be observed. She
turned her head quickly, leaned down, and pre-
tended to be studying a road map. “I hope he
doesn’t recognize me!” Nancy thought, “or see
my license plate!”
To her relief, the man walked in front of the
convertible without a sideward glance. At that
moment the woman alighted and walked toward
the lunchroom, passing close to Nancy’s car. She
was tall and slender, with blond hair that was al-
most shoulder length. Nancy’s attention was sud-
denly arrested when she detected on the stranger
a familiar scent-Blue Jade perfume!
After the driver and the blond woman had en-
tered the lunchroom, Nancy gazed at the two
men who remained in the automobile. They were
the sort Carson Drew would describe as “tough
customers.”
The blond woman soon reappeared and got
back into the sedan. Then the driver came out
carrying the cold drinks. Without looking in
Nancy’s direction, he addressed the attendant
harshly.
“Say, ain’t you finished yet?”
He turned to one of the men in the car and
handed him the bottles of ginger ale.
“Hold these, will you, Hank? I got to pay this
bird!”
Nancy started. “That man in Room 305 called
one of his friends ‘Hank’ over the telephone,” she
said to herself. “Could he be this person?”
Her attention was drawn back to the driver,
who was paying the attendant. He took a thick
roll of bills from his pocket, and with a careless
gesture peeled off a ten-dollar bill.
“Aren’t you afraid to carry such a wad around,
sir?” the attendant questioned, gazing admiringly
at the thick roll.
The driver laughed boisterously. “Plenty
more where this comes from. Eh, Hank?”
“You bet! My roll makes his look like a flat
tire! Just feast your eyes on this!” He flashed an
even larger roll of bills in the amazed attendant’s
face.
The filling-station man shrugged. “I’ll have to
go inside to get. your change.”
The moment he had disappeared, the third
man in the car muttered to his companions, “You
fools! Do you want to make him suspicious? Pipe
down!” He spoke in a low tone but the wind car-
ried his voice in Nancy’s direction.
“Maurice is right,” the driver admitted. “The
fellow is only a cornball, but we can’t be too
careful.”
The attendant returned with the change. The
driver pocketed it and drove off without another
word. Nancy instinctively noted the license
number of the car. On impulse she went to a
phone booth and dialed her friend Chief Mc-
Ginnis of the River Heights Police Department.
“I’ll ask him to let me know who owns both the
sedan and the foreign-make car that slowed down
at George’s house,” she determined. “Then I’ll
find out about the driver, the woman wearing the
Blue Jade, the men named Maurice and Hank,
and maybe the man in Room 305!”
CHAPTER VI
A Worrisome Journey
“Some class, eh?” the attendant remarked to
Nancy as she came back to her car. “Must be mil-
lionaires.”
“Or racketeers,” Nancy thought. As soon as her
gas tank was filled, she paid the bill and hurried
back into the lunchroom. The girls already had
been served.
“What took you so long?” Bess asked.
“Another car drove up and I had to wait,”
Nancy answered simply. She sat down, thought-
fully eating her sundae.
“What’s the matter with you?” George de-
manded presently. “You’ve hardly said a word
since you sat down.”
Nancy looked around and saw that no one was
seated near their table. In whispers she told what
had happened.
“Oh, dear,” said Bess, “maybe that man on the
train found out where we’re going and is on his
way there too!”
“Don’t be silly,” George chided her cousin. “If