ted Jimsy.

"Oh, yes! That's it," responded Roy. "I've got it now. Inte, minte, cute
corn, apple seeds and briar thorn, briar thorn and limber lock, three
geese in a flock, one flew east and one flew west, one flew into a
cuckoo's nest, O-U-T out, with a ragged dish clout, out!" ending with
Bess.

"Sorry for you, Bess!" cried the lad, "but you're the first victim to be
offered up."

"Oh, well, it's too hot to go chasing all over dusty country roads,"
declared Bess bravely, although she would dearly have loved to go on
the adventurous search for the missing aeroplane.

One after another they were counted out till only Roy, Peggy and Jimsy
remained.

"Hurry up and let's get off," urged Jimsy as the "elimination trials,"
as they might be termed, were concluded.

"Very well. We'll get the car--it's in the garage at the hotel--and
incidentally, we might get a lunch put up also. It may be a long chase."

The officer regarded them with frank amazement.

"My! but you city folks rush things," he exclaimed.

"I suppose they'll get busy on this case day after to-morrow," exclaimed
Roy disgustedly, as they hastened away.

It was half an hour later that the big touring car, with Roy at the
wheel, rolled out of the hotel yard. Jake had been told off to guard
the livery stable and the aeroplanes while the rest remained with Miss
Prescott, who was seriously agitated at the accumulation of troubles her
party had met with since setting out.

"I declare," she said, "I wish I was back at home where I could get
a decent cup of tea and be free of worries."

The trail of the aeroplane was not difficult to follow. It led down the
village main street and thence along a country road till it came to a
sort of cross roads. Here it branched off and followed a by-road for a
mile or so. At a gate in a hedge all signs failed however, although it
was plain that the machine had been wheeled through the gap and taken
across a field.

Beyond this field lay what appeared to be a wilderness of woods and
bushes.

"Stumped!" exclaimed Roy, as he brought the auto to a stop.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FINDING OF THE "BUTTERFLY."

"Well, what next?" asked Jimsy.

"Make a search of those woods, I suppose," replied Roy; "there's nothing
else to do."

"No, the trail has brought us here," replied Peggy energetically;
"we must make a determined effort to find the _Butterfly_."

"Maybe they've damaged it so that we won't be able to do anythi