“I think I’d better get out at the nearest telephone, to let your folks know you are all right,” the man said.  “They will be worrying, and if we can’t get another car we may find an automobile.”

The car conductor knew where there was a telephone in a drug store that they passed a little later, and the man called up Mr. Bobbsey at the lumber office.

Mr. Bobbsey and the strange man talked a while over the telephone, and then the man, coming back to where the twins were just finishing their glasses of hot chocolate which he had bought for them, said: 

“Your father is going to send the automobile for you, so we will stay here until it comes.  I told him where we were.”

“Was he worried?” asked Flossie.

“Yes, very much,” the man answered.  “Bert, your brother, went out to look for you but could not find you, and your father was just about to start out.”

“Well, we’re all right now,” said Freddie, “and we thank you very much.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” said the man, with a laugh.  “In finding you I found myself, for I was lost, too.”

In about half an hour Mr. Bobbsey’s automobile came along, he himself being in it.  He jumped out and hurried into the drug store.

“Flossie!  Freddie!” he cried.  “We were so worried about you!  What happened?”

“Oh, we just got lost,” said Freddie, calmly, “and this nice man found us.”

“We found each other,” said the stranger, with a smile, “and now that I have done all I can, I think I will go on my way.  I came to Lakeport to find my mother and my son.  They’ll be surprised to see me for they think that I am dead.”

“You don’t say so!” cried Mr. Bobbsey.  “Where does your mother live?”

“Somewhere in Lakeport.  At least she and my son did the last I heard, though they may have moved.  Perhaps you can direct me.  My name is Henry Todd, and I am looking for a Mrs. James Todd and her grandson, Tommy Todd.  I am a sea captain, and I was wrecked a number of years ago.  It was on a lonely island and——­”

“Say!” cried Freddie, so excited that he slipped right off the soda-water counter seat.  “Say!  Are you—­are you Tommy Todd’s father?”

“Yes, that’s who I am,” the man said.  “But what do you know of Tommy?”

“Why, we’d been leaving a basket of things at his house—­with Tommy’s grandmother.  Then we went out in the storm and got lost,” Freddie cried in much excitement.  “Oh, if you are Tommy’s father we won’t have to buy a ship and go off to the desert island looking for you, like Robinson Crusoe.  Oh, how glad he’ll be that you have come back!”

“And how glad I’ll be when I see him and my mother!” cried Mr. Todd.  “But you spoke of taking her some food.  Is my mother poor, and in want?” he asked Mr. Bobbsey.

“She is poor, but not exactly in want.  My wife and I and some friends have been looking after her.  Your boy, Tommy, runs errands for me.”