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PICKING UP THE TRAIL
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times and knew the way well. Soon they reached the hotel, and with his heart beating loudly, Dave hurried up to the desk and asked the clerk if Link Merwell and Nick Jasniff were stopping there.

"Never heard of them," replied the clerk, after thinking a moment.

"I have photographs, perhaps you can tell them from that," went on Dave, and he drew from his pocket two photographs, taken at different times at Oak Hall. Each showed a group of students, and in one group was Merwell and in the other Jasniff.

The clerk looked at the pictures closely.

"What is this, some joke?" he asked, suspiciously.

"No, It is a matter of great importance," answered Dave. "We must find those two young men if we possibly can."

"Well, if they are the pair who were here some days ago, you are too late. But their names weren't what you said."

"What did they call themselves?" asked Dunston Porter.

"John Leeds and Samuel Cross," answered the clerk. "They had Room 87, and were here two days."

"Do you know where they went to?" asked Phil.

"I do not."