“They’re all right,” the man who drove the car assured Mr. Bobbsey.  “I didn’t see ’em go away, of course, as I was busy, but I’m sure nothing has happened.”

“But what shall we do?” cried Mrs. Bobbsey, and tears came into her eyes.  “It does seem as if more things have happened to Flossie and Freddie since we started on this trip than ever before.”

“Oh, they’ll be all right,” declared Mr. Bobbsey.  “I’ll look around.  Perhaps they may have gone into one of these houses.”

“Did you look under the seats?” asked Bert.

“Under the seats!” exclaimed Billy.  “What good would that do?  Your brother and sister couldn’t be under there!”

“Pooh, you don’t know much about Flossie and Freddie!” answered Bert.  “They can be in more places than you can think of; can’t they, Nan?”

“Yes, they do get into queer places sometimes.  But they aren’t under my seat,” and Nan looked, to make sure.

“Nor mine,” added Nell, as she looked also.

Some of the other passengers on the auto did the same thing.  Mr. Bobbsey really thought it might be possible that Freddie and Flossie, for some queer reason, might have crawled under one of the seats when the big machine stopped for water.  But the children were not there.

“Oh, what shall we do?” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.

“They’ll be all right,” her husband answered.  “They can’t be far away.”

“That’s right ma’am,” said a fat, jolly-looking man.

“Some of you go and inquire in the houses near here,” suggested the man who drove the auto.  “And I’ll go and telephone back to the office, and see if they’re there.”

“But how could they be at your automobile office?” Mrs. Bobbsey wanted to know.

“It might easily happen,” replied the man.  “We run a number of these big machines.  One of them may have passed out this way while I was stopping here for water, and perhaps none of us notice it, and the children may have climbed on and gone on that car, thinking it was this one.”

“They couldn’t get on if the auto didn’t stop,” said Billy.

“Well, maybe it stopped,” returned the driver.  “Perhaps it passed up the next street.  The children may have gone down there and gotten on.  Whatever has happened, your little ones are all right, ma’am; I’m sure of that.”

“I wish I could be!” sighed Mrs. Bobbsey.

Several men volunteered to help Mr. Bobbsey look for the missing twins, and they went to the doors of nearby houses and rang the bells.  But to all the answer was the same.  Flossie and Freddie had not been seen.

And the reason for this was that the small Bobbsey twins, in following the stray cat, had turned a corner and gone down another street, and were on the block next the one where the auto stood.  That was the reason the Walker cook, looking out in front, could see no machine, and why it was that none of those who helped Mr. Bobbsey look for the missing children could find them.