As if in answer to her wish, the train reached a long grade and began to lose speed. In a short time it was moving very slowly.
A few minutes later the freight train slowed down to about five miles an hour. The two girls selected a favorable spot and jumped from the slowly moving train. They were free!
Nancy and George started rapidly across a field before anyone on the freight train might become aware of their presence. A quarter of a mile farther on, the girls came to a road.
“Oh, hallelujah, there’s a farmhouse!” George cried. “I never was so glad to see a house in my life!”
Nancy grinned. She was pretty delighted about it herself. At the farmhouse they found an elderly couple. They looked searchingly at the disheveled girls when Nancy asked to use their telephone.
“I guess so,” the man answered. “Where you two be comin’ from this early hour of the mornin’?”
“Why—uh—we were out riding,” Nancy replied haltingly. “We—uh—left our car over by the railroad.”
“Broke down, eh?” the man said, as he led the girl to the telephone.
Nancy put in a call to her home, reversing the charges. It hardly seemed as if the telephone had started ringing when Hannah answered. The frantic woman wanted to know if Nancy was all right.
“I’m fine, Hannah,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be home after a while.”
“Where are you?” the housekeeper asked.
“Just a minute. I’ll find out.”
Nancy turned to the man and asked where she was. He said not far from the town of Black River. The girl relayed this to Hannah.
“My goodness,” she said, “that’s about a hundred miles from here.”
Nancy said that if she needed any assistance in getting home she would call again. She asked the housekeeper to notify George’s parents that their daughter was with her and was all right.
After Nancy had completed the telephone call, she asked the farmer if it would be possible for him to drive the girls to town.
“I’ll be glad to,” he said. “I was going anyway, soon as I have my breakfast. Have you girls eaten yet?”
When they told him no, his wife invited the girls to join them.
During the meal, the kindly couple were curious to learn more about their visitors, but the girls were wary of saying anything.
Upon arriving in Black River, the girls immediately went to the State Police office, and after giving their names, told what had happened to them.
“We haven’t a shred of evidence to prove who was responsible,” said Nancy, “only suspicions. And the police are already working on the case, so I’m not asking your help except to get us home. We haven’t a penny with us.”
“I can do that,” the officer said, smiling. He took some money from a drawer and handed it to Nancy. “Return the cash when it’s convenient.”
The girls thanked him and went to the station, A short time later they boarded a train to River Heights and at nine o’clock reached home.
Mr. Drew hugged his daughter, and Hannah wiped away tears of joy. After the greetings and explanations were over, Nancy said ruefully:
“I won’t dare go back to Sims’ Circus, I suppose. I wonder what will happen to the Vascons’ act.”
“That’s no longer your worry, Nancy,” her father said firmly. “What’s more, you’re leaving town at once. Let Kroon think his diabolical plan was a success.”
“Where am I going?” Nancy asked.
“How would you like to visit Aunt Eloise and continue to work on the case in New York?” he suggested.
Nancy kissed her father. “Dad, you’re a genius. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do!”
CHAPTER XIX
New York Yields a Lead
As Nancy quickly packed her bags in order to catch the afternoon plane to New York, she discussed further angles of the case with her father.
“Don’t you think George ought to go away, too,” she asked.
“I think it would be a very good idea,” her father replied. “Why don’t you take her with you?”
Nancy telephoned her friend and learned that the Fayne family already had planned for George to be out of town for a while. They were taking her on a motor trip.