“I must get to a telephone!” cried Larry, his newspaper instincts to the fore again, now that he had successfully covered his special assignment.

“Get back into my car,” suggested Fritsch.  “Dere is a telephone at de top of der hill.  I’ll drive you now so long as de race is ofer!”

“And we won!” cried Grace.  “Oh, father!  How glad I am to have you back!”

“How glad I am to get back!” replied Mr. Potter.

Larry sat beside the German reporter, who took his place at the steering wheel.  The other car was left where the men had abandoned it.  They had disappeared into the woods on either side of the road, and never troubled Mr. Potter again.

“Why did you disappear, Mr. Potter?” asked Larry, who had to have some facts to telephone in, as it was near first edition-time.

“It’s a long story to tell, young man,” replied the millionaire, “and quite complicated.  Briefly, I had to disappear in order to save a number of widows and orphans from losing what little money they depended on for a living.  As you have probably guessed, I am interested in many financial matters.  One was the building of an extension of the subway.  Hundreds of widows, and guardians of orphans, had bought stock in this enterprise, as it was sold by popular subscription.

“While abroad I learned there was a scheme on foot to involve me in certain legal difficulties, and it might even cause my arrest in order to get me to do certain things that would force the price of the subway stock down, and so bankrupt many innocent persons.  To prevent this I determined to disappear, without even the knowledge of my family.  How I managed it I will tell you later.  Matters were going along all right until Retto, whose real name, you might as well know, is Simonson, suddenly disappeared.  I did not know what to do, nor how matters, with which I had entrusted him, were progressing.  But it wasn’t his fault.  I wonder what happened to him?”

Larry explained about Mr. Simonson’s accident, of which Mr. Potter was ignorant.

“When these men, my enemies, unexpectedly appeared to-day at the house where I had been hiding ever since I disappeared, asked me to appear in a New Jersey court, I had to go with them,” went on Mr. Potter.  “It was in the nature of an arrest, and I did not dare disobey.  They wanted to take me before a Supreme Court Justice in his home on the mountain and make me sign certain papers.

“But you came along in the nick of time.  When you gave me that message to the effect that the money was all right, I knew that the affairs of the subway had been so arranged that the stock would not go down and the widows and orphans would not suffer.  I was willing then to appear in court, as the schemes of the scoundrels, who had practically kidnapped me, could amount to nothing.  But it seems they didn’t wait to see what the outcome would be.  I’m much obliged to you, Larry.”