ion,"
guessed Dick.

"Myra wouldn't cry out. She would be cowed by her father's threats. She
always was afraid of him," wailed Mrs. Dexter.

"Are you going to appeal to the police?" Dick asked.

"I--I must."

"Then you're losing time, Mrs. Dexter--and there's your telephone. We
boys will go out into the streets and see if we can find any trace--pick
up any word. When we came along there was a cab standing in front of the
Grahams. But I suppose that cab belonged to some of their visitors."

"The Grahams have been out of town for the last few days," broke in Mrs.
Dexter. "There has been no one at their house, except one old man who
acts as care-taker."

"Then Dexter may have had that cab waiting for him," flashed young
Prescott. "Come along, fellows! Let's see what we can find out."

Dave and Greg were at the street door ahead of their young leader. None
of the boys paused longer, for Mrs. Dexter was already at her telephone.

Out in the street the three Grammar School lads raced along the sidewalk
until they reached the house of the Graham family. The cab was gone.

"We can find that cab anywhere," declared Dick. "Any one else would
recognize it. It had one brown, or dark horse, and one gray horse."

"I didn't notice the driver," stated Darrin.

"He was sitting inside the cab," spoke up Greg. "I didn't get a good
look at him, either."

"Going to race on into Main Street?" asked Dave, as the three came to a
street corner.

"Dexter would hardly drive right into the clutches of the police, would
he?" pondered Prescott. "No; I think it'll turn out that he went the
opposite way, out of town."

Saying this, Dick headed for the outskirts of Gridley, still keeping
along at a dog-trot. Dave and Greg didn't talk now; they were husbanding
their store of "wind."

After a short time all three boys had to slow down to a walk. That "pain
in the side," which seizes all boys who try to run far without training
and practice, had caught them. Still, they moved along as fast as they
could go.

"Excuse me, mister," hailed Dick, halting the first man they met, who
came strolling toward them, smoking a pipe, "have you seen a cab go by?"

"Yes."

"Oldish cab?" broke in Dave.

"One gray horse and one dark or brown?" breathed Greg.

"Yep."

"How long ago?" asked all three.

"'Bout two minutes ago. Why?"

"Which way did it go?" breathed Dick anxiously.

"Why, the driver stopped me," explained the man, taking out his