He stopped suddenly.  A blank look came over his face.  Hurriedly he felt in another pocket.  Then he began a rapid search through his clothes.

“What’s the matter?” asked the secretary.  “Did you mislay your valuables?”

“Yes—­no—­I don’t see—­” murmured Ed. All the while he was making a frantic search.  His face paled.  The bank officials looked anxiously on.

“Can’t you find it?” inquired the president.

“I’ve either lost my wallet,—­or it’s been stolen!” burst out Ed desperately.

“How could it have been stolen?” asked the secretary.

“I don’t know,” was the answer.  “I don’t see how it could have been, as, from the time it was in my pocket until now, I did not leave my auto—­”

He stopped quickly.  The memory of the scene alongside the road, where the machines had collided, came back to him with vivid distinctness.  He had alighted there, and—­

He pursued his reflections no further, but hurriedly got up from the chair.

“I must go back at once,” he said.  “I will make a search.  I think I know where the loss may have taken place.”

“Or the theft,” suggested the president.

“No,” said Ed slowly, “I don’t believe it was a theft.”

“Shall we send for a detective?  Will you take one of our porters or a watchman with you?” asked the secretary.

“No; I think I’ll make a search myself, first, thank you.  And please don’t tell the police—­yet.  I may have dropped it.  I’ll let you know as soon—­as soon as I go to a certain place and look.  There is time enough to notify the authorities afterward.  I’ll telephone you if I don’t find it, and then I’ll tell the police in Chelton.  But I must hurry.”

“Yes; you had better lose no time,” advised the president.

“The thief—­if there, was one—­could easily dispose of those securities.  As for the money—?”

“He would have no trouble in spending that,” finished Ed.  “Yes, I’ll go back at once.”

He hurried out to his auto, and was soon speeding back over the road on which he had come.  He reached the spot where the auto collision had occurred, and where he had helped fix Cora’s machine.  Jumping from the car he looked carefully over the ground, but could find no trace of the missing wallet, containing the equivalent of twenty thousand dollars.

“I must hurry to tell the police,” he murmured as he urged his machine forward at top speed.  A little later Cora and Walter, who had returned to Chelton, saw Ed standing on the steps of the police station.

“Why!” Cora exclaimed to Walter in some surprise, “I thought Ed was in New City, attending to that bank business.”

“He ought to be,” commented Walter.  Then, noting Ed’s white face, he added:  “Something’s happened!”

A moment later Jack, who had left the Robinson twins at their home, drove up in his runabout, and stopped it beside his sister’s larger car.  He, too, saw Ed Foster’s white face.