“Then John, or whomever I have with me to make the music to draw a crowd, and I, go to the hotel to stay all night.  In the morning, after breakfast, we start out again.  Sometimes, in a big city I stay a week, selling in different places.

“But that boy, whoever he is, has gone.  I can see where he’s been washing the black off, and, not wanting to wait when he saw I was talking to you folks, I guess he just slipped away.  John is a bashful boy.”

“Do you know anything about him?” asked Mr. Brown.  “Where did he come from, and where is he going?  Did he give any account of himself?”

“Not much, except that he came to me the other day just after my violin player left me.  I had to have somebody musical to draw the crowd, and he surely can play the banjo.

“So I hired him.  He said his name was Lane and that he had to make his own way in the world.  Said he wanted to be a player in a theater.

“I told him my place was a sort of open-air theater and ought to suit him,” said Dr. Perry with a smile, “and he said he thought he would like it.  So I engaged him and he did very well.  You are the first persons that have inquired about him.”

“We are not sure he is the runaway Fred we are looking for,” said Mr. Brown.  “It is hard to tell with all that black he had on.  But I should like to meet him.”

“Go to the hotel any time between now and morning,” suggested the medicine man.  “I guess the boy will be glad to talk to you.”

“I’ll see him in the morning,” said Bunny’s father.  “I’d like to get this boy to go home, if he is really Fred Ward.  His mother and father miss him very much.”

“I’ll do all I can for you,” promised the medicine man.  “Come to the hotel in the morning and I’ll let you talk to him.  I won’t say anything in the meanwhile, because if he is really Fred, and has run off as you say, he won’t want to meet you or go back with you.  It’s best to take him unawares.”

Mr. Brown agreed to this, and then, with his wife and Bunny and Sue, started for the “Ark.”  On the way they discussed what had happened.  They saw the medicine man, as they turned down the curve in the road, driving his horse and van toward the hotel.

“I’m sure it’s Fred,” said Sue.

“So am I,” added Bunny.  “Won’t it be great if we find him so soon?”

“It may not be the missing boy,” said Mr. Brown.  “But we’ll know in the morning.”

Those in the “Ark” passed a quiet night, though they went to bed later than usual because of the excitement of the evening.  Uncle Tad was interested in hearing the news about the blackened-up banjo player who might prove to be Fred Ward.

“And how’s Fluffy, our squirrel?” asked Sue.

“Fast asleep, just as Dix and Splash are,” answered Uncle Tad.

Bunny and Sue were awake early the next morning, but Daddy Brown was ahead of them, and their mother said he had gone on to the hotel to see about the banjo boy.