CHAPTER XXIV

BY TELEGRAPH

The man stared at the girls as if he could not believe what Betty had said.  A strange look came over his face.

“If this is a joke, please drop it,” he began.  “I am almost crazy as it is.  I don’t know what I am doing.  I—­”

“It isn’t a joke!” declared Betty.  “It may sound strange, but it’s all true.  We did find your bill, under the railroad bridge in Deepdale.  It’s in my father’s safe now.”

“That’s great—­it’s fine.  I’d given it up long ago.  I advertised, and put up a notice in the post-office, and—­”

“Yes, my mother wrote me about it,” said Betty.  “But she did not give your address, for some naughty boys tore it off the notice.”

“And do you really think someone tried to rob you?” asked Mollie.

“I don’t know what to think,” frankly admitted the young man.  “There was a boy in the same car—­”

“He never took it!” exclaimed Grace.

“How do you know?” the young man asked.

“Because we met that boy, and he told us just how you acted when you discovered your loss.  Besides, that boy is thoroughly honest.”

“Say, is there anything about my case that you girls don’t know?” asked the young man with a smile.  “But before I go any further, perhaps I had better introduce myself—­”

“Oh, we know your name!” exclaimed Betty.

“You do?  And you never saw me before?”

“You forget that your name was signed to the notice in the post-office—­Mr. Blackford,” and Betty blushed.

“That’s so.  But I don’t know your names, and, if it’s not too impertinent, after the service you have rendered me—­”

“We’ll tell you—­certainly,” interrupted Betty, and she introduced herself and her chums.

“I suppose you will wonder how I played the part of a tramp,” said the young man.  “I will tell you why.  I was almost out of my mind, and I imagined that by going around looking ragged I might pick up some news of my lost money from the tramps along the railroad.”

Then he told of how he had started to write a letter, stating he could not buy the business he was after, and had then torn the letter up, because he still hoped to find the bill and get control of the business.

“And we found part of that letter,” cried Betty.  “We tried to find you, too, but you had disappeared.”

“Indeed.  I know how that happened—­I took a short cut through the woods.”

“The chocolate is ready!” called Grace, a little later.  “Won’t you have some, Mr. Blackford?”

“Thank you, I will.  Say, but you young ladies are all right.  Do you do this sort of thing often?”

“Well, we like to be outdoors,” explained Betty, as she handed him a cup of the hot beverage.  “We like to take long walks, but this is the first time we ever went on a tour like this.”