n speeding toward it. What the
next move was to be no one could say.

The manager remembered the call that had come in. Two men had come
with a messenger boy to engage a cab to go to the address of the
machine shop.

"And who were the two men?" asked Russ.

The manager described one whom Ruth and Alice had no difficulty in
recognizing as Simp Wolley.

"The other man was shorter and not so well dressed," the cab manager
went on.

"Bud Brisket!" exclaimed Russ. "I know him. Now the question is:
Where did they take my model?"

"There I'm afraid I can't help you," said the manager.

"Wait!" exclaimed Alice. "Did you happen to notice the number on the
messenger boy's cap?"

"No, I did not, I'm sorry to say," the man answered.

"Then that clue is no good," spoke Russ, with a sigh.

"It might be," put in Ruth. "The messenger was probably engaged from
the office nearest here. We could find that and make some inquiries."

"So we could!" cried Alice. "Oh, Ruth, you're a dear!"

Russ looked as though he would have said the same thing had he dared.

An inquiry over the telephone to the main office of the messenger
service, brought the desired information. And soon, in their taxicab
Russ, Ruth and Alice were at the sub-station. There the identity of
the messenger was soon learned, and he was sent for.

"Sure, I went to de machine shop," admitted the snub-nosed,
freckled-faced lad. "I got some sort of a thing. I didn't know what
it was."

"And where did you take it?" asked Russ eagerly.

"Right where dem men told me to. Dey met me around de corner, got in
de cab and rode off wid it."

"And what did you do?" asked the manager of the messenger.

"Oh, dey gave me carfare, an' a tip, and I come back here."

"But where did they go?" asked Russ.

"Off in de taxi. I didn't notice."

Russ looked hopeless, but Ruth exclaimed:

"We've got to go back to the taxi office and see the chauffeur of
that car. He's the only one who can tell us where the men are."

"Good!" cried Russ. "We'll do it."

Back again they went, to find that the car had just come in, after a
long trip. The chauffeur readily gave the address to which he had
driven the two men, after the messenger boy had gotten out. It was in
an obscure section of Jersey City.

"And there's where I'm going!" cried Russ. "Wolley and Brisket are
probably going to try to work their scheme from there. But maybe I
can stop them."

"I--I think we had better go home