“I don’t know.  All they know here was that some couple in an automobile left me here.  They said they passed just after an auto hit my motorcycle.  They said the auto didn’t stop.”

“And Miss Strong—­did they say anything about her?”

“Not a word.  The people here were under the impression I was riding alone.”

“All right,” said the chief.  “I’ll get some one up there at once to look after you and pick up any clues.”

As he hung up the ’phone, his forehead wrinkled into little lines of absorbed concentration.  He sat at his desk for fully five minutes almost motionless, trying to figure it out.  What did the accident to Dean signify?  How was the sudden disappearance of Jane Strong to be accounted for?  Had she fled from the scene after Dean was disabled, fearing that her name might be coupled with his in an account of the accident?  It did not seem like the sort of thing she would do.  The impression she had made on him was that of a girl of high resolve who would be apt to carry through anything she undertook, cost what it may.  Yet what could have happened to her?  If she, too, had been injured, why was she not with Dean?  If she was not injured, why had she not communicated with the office?  Who were the couple that had brought Dean to the doctor’s office?  Why had not the doctor taken their names and addresses?

What part had the Hoffs played in the accident?  Had they purposely run down the motorcycle?  If they had found out they were being shadowed they would not have hesitated, he felt sure, to resort to such murderous tactics.  Had they not already one dastardly murder to their record?  He must find out when the Hoffs arrived home.  They would not be due for an hour or two, but he would caution the operatives watching the house to keep more vigilant watch.  Reaching for his ’phone he called up the head-quarters of the operatives.

“Report to me at once,” he said to the operative who answered his call, “the minute the Hoffs have arrived home.”

“The old man is home now,” the operative answered.

“What’s that?” cried Fleck.

“He came in alone five minutes ago on foot.  The young man is not home yet with the automobile.”

“Let me know as soon as he arrives,” said Fleck curtly, turning away from the ’phone.

He was more perplexed than ever.  What could have happened?  Where was young Hoff with the motor?  Where was Jane Strong?  Why had she disappeared after Dean had been hurt?  How had she vanished?  The Hoffs’ affairs had assuredly taken a new and bothersome turn, over which Fleck sat puzzling many minutes.

Where was Jane Strong?  In the answer to that question, he decided at length, lay the crux of the whole situation.

CHAPTER XI

JANE’S ADVENTURE