“Well, I don’t know that I can tell you. They were both of medium height, and were smooth shaven—I mean they had no beards or moustaches, though both of them would have been better for a visit to the barber’s.”
“They came in and each had a plate of cream,” went on the girl. “I didn’t exactly like their looks, for, though we try to run a place that will suit every one, we are a bit particular too. But they didn’t make any fuss, and even tipped the waitress.”
“Then they must be ‘regular fellows,’” said Walter, jokingly.
“‘Scuse me,” broke in the voice of the waitress—the same one who had waited on the girls—“but de dime tip dey gibbed me wasn’t any good.”
“It was plugged. Look!” and she exhibited it.
“So it is!” exclaimed Cora’s brother. “They weren’t so regular after all.”
“I didn’t see it till after dey’d gone,” the negress went on.
“Perhaps you can describe them for me,” Jack suggested.
It developed that the waitress could give a better word-picture of the two young men than could the cashier, whose attention, naturally, was taken up with her duties at the desk.
Jack noted down the none too good distinguishing marks as described by the waitress, and went to telephone them to the police as an additional help in capturing those who had gone with Cora’s car.
There was nothing more that could be done just then, and Jack was about to suggest that, by means of a little crowding, he could take his sister and her chums back to Chelton in his car when the young woman who had charge of the tea room entered, it being her hour to go on duty.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, as she observed the group of excited young people about the cashier’s desk.
“Two strange young men went off with Miss Kimball’s auto,” was the cashier’s answer, and the circumstances were related.
“Two young men!” exclaimed the manager. “Why I remember those two who had cream in here this morning. They spoke to me as they came out on the porch, and I bought tickets of them.”
“Yes. They seemed all right—I mean respectful and all that. They said they had unexpectedly run out of funds and wanted to know if I wouldn’t buy some railroad tickets they had to New York. I said I hadn’t any use for them, and couldn’t get off to go to New York anyhow, as this was our busy season.”