“It was a long one of brown leather,” replied Jack, describing Ed’s pocketbook and ignoring the question of what was in it.  “A friend of mine dropped it along here, and we’re helping him hunt for it.  My sister and Mr. Pennington are going to look in one direction, and you and I’ll look in the other.”

Jack tried to make his voice sound friendly, but it was difficult work.

“You’ll look on one side of the road, and I’ll keep watch on the other,” he went on.

“All right; I’m agreeable,” said Lem with a leer.  “I don’t believe we’ll find it, though—­I ain’t never very lucky.”

He got into the auto beside Jack, and the two started off slowly.  Cora and Walter also started, and the search for the missing twenty thousand dollars was continued.

Jack and Lem did not talk much on the way back.  Lem Gildy was not an accomplished conversationalist, and Jack was too anxious to find the wallet to care for the distraction of talk.  Several times he thought he saw the pocketbook, but each time it was a flat stone or a clod of dirt that misled him.

They reached Chelton, and Lem asked to be set down in a secluded street.

“Why?” asked Jack curiously.

“Because if some of me chums saw me ridin’ in a swell wagon like this they’d never speak to me again,” and Lem grinned and showed all his yellow teeth.  “I was afraid we wouldn’t find that pocketbook,” he added.

“Well, maybe Cora will,” said Jack.

“Yes,” said Lem slowly, “maybe she will—­or some one else will.”

His tone was so peculiar that Jack asked quickly: 

“What do you mean, Lem?”

“Oh, nothin’,” and the fellow assumed an injured air.  “Only if a pocketbook is lost, some one’s bound to find it, ain’t they?”

“I suppose so,” assented Jack, and as he drove his car through the streets of Chelton, after the unsuccessful search, he found himself vainly puzzling over Lem’s strange manner.

Then, as he was turning a corner, Jack caught sight of Ed.

“Hey!” he called.

Ed turned.  There was a momentary look of hope on his face.

“Did you—­” he began.

Jack sadly shook his head.

CHAPTER IX

FINDING THE WALLET

“No luck, eh?” went on Ed as he approached Jack.

“No; that is, Lem and I didn’t have any.”

“Lem—­do you mean to say Lem Gildy?”

“Now, don’t get nervous.  I didn’t tell him it was your pocketbook that was lost.  You see, I had to have some one keep watch on one side of the road while I looked on the other, and he was the only one available.”

Then Jack related the details of the search.

“I’m glad Lem doesn’t know about it,” went on Ed.  “I heard to-day that he and Sid Wilcox have been seen together several times lately, and I’m not quite ready to have my loss made public—­especially to Sid.”