“It’s a good thing you stopped when you did, Mr. Bobbsey,” said the garage man.

“Why so?”

“Because if you had gone on a little farther one of the wheels of your car would have come off, and if you had been going fast, or down-hill, you might have had a bad accident.  I found the break when I was putting on the tire, and I came over to ask if you wanted me to fix it.”

“Yes, I suppose so.  I’ll come and have a look.  We don’t want to go on if there is any danger.”

“There is danger.  And it will take half a day to mend the break.”

“Half a day!” said Mr. Bobbsey, as he followed the man, forgetting for the time all about Bob and Mr. Blipper.  “That means we’ll not get to Meadow Brook to-night.  Is there a good hotel in town?”

“Yes, a very good one not far from my garage.”

“Well then, in case we have to remain, we can stay at the hotel.  But wait until I take a look at the broken wheel.”

Mr. Bobbsey found that the garage man was right.  The automobile was in need of repairs, and had the party gone on, without noticing the break, a bad accident might have happened.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey, when told of the news, “must we stay here all night?”

“Unless I hire another auto, or you and the children go on by train,” said her husband.  “I shall have to stay here to bring our car on.”

“Oh, I don’t want that!  No, we’ll stay at the hotel.  But what about him?” she asked in a low voice, pointing to Bob Guess, who was talking to the twins.

“That’s so.  We can’t turn him adrift,” Mr. Bobbsey agreed.  “Well, I’ll get a room for him at the hotel.  In the morning I can decide what to do.  I don’t like to send him back to Blipper.  But if the man has adopted him he has a claim on the boy.  We’ll see what happens by morning.”

Mrs. Bobbsey may have disliked to break the journey and stay at a strange hotel, but the Bobbsey twins thought it great fun.  The hotel was a small country one, clean and neat, and the Bobbseys and Bob Guess were about the only guests there.

“I’m not fit to stop at a hotel,” said the ragged boy.

“Oh, you’re all right,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “Perhaps I can get you some clothes here.  If there isn’t a store that sells them I may be able to get you a second-hand suit from the hotel keeper.”

As it happened, there was no clothing store in the village of Montville, where the stop was made.  But the hotel proprietor had some clothes of one of his sons who had gone to the city to work.  Bob was given a partly worn but very good coat and trousers.

“He’s a nice looking boy when he’s dressed well,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, as the lad discarded his old clothes.

“Yes,” agreed her husband.  “He has a good, honest face.  And yet, when I think of my coat and the lap robe——­ But I’ll wait until I see Blipper.”

“Do you think you will see him?”