“Oh, he’ll keep ’em safe till you folks get there.  The trains run pretty close together at this hour of the day.  Your husband can get uptown after ’em so quick that they won’t have to wait long.”

“What shall we do?” asked Bert.

“We will all go on together,” answered his father.  “I wish we had taken an automobile to go to the hotel, and then this would not have happened.  But Flossie and Freddie would have been disappointed if they had not had the first ride in an elevated train.  However, I’m sure it will all come out right.”

The ticket agent went into his little office to telephone on ahead, and have Flossie and Freddie taken from the train and held until their parents could claim them.  Meanwhile Mr. Bobbsey and the others waited until this was done before getting on the train that was to take them far uptown in New York.

Something was the matter with the telephone in the first station which the ticket seller called up.  He could not get the agent there to talk to him over the wire until the train in which Flossie and Freddie were riding, had whizzed on, after making a short stop.

“Well, I’ll catch them at the next station where the train stops,” the agent said.  This time he managed to get in touch with the agent there, but when the latter understood, and ran out to hail the train, it was already in motion and could not be stopped.

“Well, the third time is always lucky,” said the ticket seller who had offered to do what he could to help Mr. Bobbsey.  “I’ll be sure to catch them now.”

He talked over the telephone to another agent and this one answered back that the train was just then pulling out of his station.

“But I’ll yell at one of the guards,” this agent called into the telephone instrument, “and tell him to put the children off at the next stop.  I’ll do that,” and he rushed out to try to call to one of the trainmen.

“That will be One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street,” said the first agent, as he came out of his little office.  “That’s the best I can do.  Your two little children will be put off the train when it makes the stop there, and the ticket agent will look after them until you get there.  You can wait for the next express, or you can take a local train here and change to the express at Sixty-sixth Street.”

When the next train came along, they got on, eager and anxious to catch up to the missing children.  In order not to be bothered with the hand-baggage, Mr. Bobbsey had called a taxicab and had had the chauffeur take it to the hotel were they were to stop, which was an uptown hotel, near enough to Central Park for Flossie and Freddie to walk over to see the monkeys as often as they wished.

Meanwhile the two runaway children—­who really did not mean to run away—­were in the express train speeding along.  After their first surprise at finding themselves alone, they were not frightened, but continued to look out of the windows and to wonder at the many sights they saw.