“Let us take time—­ Doctor Wallington didn’t want us to hurry back,” put in Tom.  “I think the girls ought to know about this, so as to be on guard, in case old Crabtree tries to molest them again.”

As the lads were all of one mind, the biplane was headed in the direction of Hope.  As before, the flying machine swung through the air at a good rate of speed, and half an hour before sundown they came in sight of the Seminary buildings.

“Wonder where they are?” mused Dick, as the biplane came to earth at the spot where they had landed before.

“If they are around they must have heard us,” answered Tom.  “The engine makes noise enough to wake the dead.”  And this was well expressed, for the motor, like many of the flying machine kind, had no muffler attached, and the explosions were not unlike the firing of a gatling gun.

Some girls had seen them come down, and presently the boys saw three figures hurrying towards them.

“Oh, what made you come so late?” cried Grace, as she rushed up and shook hands with Sam and then with the others.

“We thought you might come to-day,” put in Nellie, as she beamed on Tom, and extended both hands.

“I heard the machine first,” declared Dora, and came straight to Dick, who did not hesitate to give her the hearty kiss to which he thought his engagement entitled him.

“We have been to Plankville,” came from Tom and Sam, in a breath.

“Have you heard the news?” questioned their big brother, and he looked anxiously from Dora to her cousins.

“What news?” cried Dora, quickly.  “We have heard nothing unusual.”

“Josiah Crabtree broke out of the Plankville jail and ran away.”

“Oh, Dick!” and Dora grew suddenly pale.  “Do you really mean it?”

“When was this?” demanded Nellie.

“Tell us all about it,” supplemented Grace.

“We can’t tell you any more than what we have heard,” answered Sam.  “We just got word ourselves this morning.”

Then the boys told their story and answered innumerable questions which the girls put to them.

“This will be bad news for mother,” said Dora, to Dick.  “She is afraid of Josiah Crabtree, and always has been—­ because of his strange hypnotic power.”

“I don’t think he will dare to show himself—­ at least, not for a while, Dora,” he answered.  “He knows only too well that the jail is waiting to receive him.”

“That strange man with the bushy eyebrows and the pointed chin must have helped him to get away,” was Nellie’s comment.

“So we think,” answered Tom.

“But who was he?” questioned her sister.

“That’s a conundrum we can’t answer,” returned Sam.  “I think he was waiting around with that auto, and as soon as the fire started Crabtree saw the chance he wanted and got out.”

“Maybe Crabtree started the fire?” suggested Dora.

“No, that was purely an accident—­ so the jailer says.  The wind blew a curtain against a lamp and the burning curtain fell into some excelsior in a box of new dishes.  The excelsior made quite a blaze and a lot of smoke, and everybody in the jail was badly frightened for a while.”