Mike and I
helped Simmons to unload."
"Did you see which way Lad went, when he jumped out of the
truck?" pursued the Mistress. "Or have any of you seen him since
then?"
"Why, no, ma'am," came the puzzled answer. "I haven't seen him at
all. I supposed he was in the car with you, and that maybe he'd
been in the house ever since. He wasn't on the truck: That's one
sure thing. I saw it stop; and I stayed till they finished
emptying it. Lad wasn't there."
There was a moment's pause. Then, the Mistress spoke again. Her
voice slightly muffled, she said:
"Please find out if there is plenty of gas in my car;--enough to
take it--say, forty miles. Thank you."
"What on earth--?" began the Master, as his wife left the
telephone and picked up an ulster.
"Laddie didn't come home on the truck," she made tremulous reply.
"And he wasn't with us. He hasn't come home all."
"He'll find his way, easily enough," returned the Master, albeit
with no great assurance. "Lad's found his way farther than that.
He--"
"If he was going to find his way," interrupted the Mistress,
"he'd have found it before now.
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