FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  
ded Agnes, filled with a new fear. "He's not a brigand I should hope," Cecile Shepard cried. "Can't tell what he is till we see him," Neale grumbled. "If this old canalboat hasn't been wrecked or sunk, we'll find it and interview Cap'n Quigg before we go back." "Meanwhile," Ruth said, with more than a little doubt, "the children may be wandering in quite an opposite direction." "Why, of course, our guess may be wrong, Ruth," Luke said thoughtfully, turning around the better to speak with the oldest Corner House girl. "However, we are traveling so fast that it will not delay us much." "Pshaw, no!" exclaimed Neale. "We'll be in Durginville in a few minutes." But they did not get that far. Crossing the canal by a liftbridge they swept along the other side and suddenly coming out of the woods saw before them a tented city. "Why!" cried Cecile, "it's a circus!" "I saw the pictures on the billboards," her brother admitted. "If we only had the children with us, and everything was all right, we might go." "Sure we would," responded Neale, smiling. "Oh, Neale!" cried Agnes, "is it Uncle Bill's?" "Yes. I have a letter in my pocket now from him that I've had no chance to read." "You don't suppose Mr. Sorber knows anything about the children?" said Ruth, a little weakly for her. "How could he?" gasped Agnes. "But we ought to stop and ask." "And see about the calico pony," chuckled Neale. "Tess and Dot have been hounding me to death about that." "You don't suppose Dot could have started out to hunt for the circus to get that pony, do you?" suggested Ruth, almost at her wits' end to imagine what had happened to her little sister and her friend. "We'll know about that shortly," Neale declared. Suddenly Luke Shepard exclaimed: "Hullo, what's afire, Neale? See yonder?" "At the canal," cried his sister, seeing the smoke too. "Is it a house?" asked Agnes. "A straw stack!" cried Neale. "Must be. Some farmer is losing the winter's bedding for his cattle." "It is on the canal," Luke put in. "Don't you see? There's one of those old barges there--and the smoke is coming from it." "There are the flames. The fire's burst out," Agnes cried. Suddenly Ruth startled them all by demanding: "How do we know it isn't the _Nancy Hanks_?" "Crickey! We don't," acknowledged Neale, and immediately touched the accelerator. The car leaped ahead. They went roaring on toward the circus grounds and the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

children

 

circus

 

Suddenly

 
sister
 
Shepard
 

coming

 
suppose
 

Cecile

 

exclaimed

 

shortly


declared
 

imagine

 

happened

 

friend

 

hounding

 
gasped
 

weakly

 

filled

 

Sorber

 
suggested

started

 
calico
 

chuckled

 

Crickey

 

demanding

 

startled

 

flames

 
acknowledged
 

immediately

 

roaring


grounds

 

touched

 

accelerator

 

leaped

 

barges

 

yonder

 

cattle

 

bedding

 

farmer

 

losing


winter

 

turning

 

thoughtfully

 

oldest

 

traveling

 

However

 
Corner
 

direction

 

opposite

 

interview