around," suggested Dick, at last, and bidding the jailer good-bye, they hurried away.
Along the river bank they found several men and boys, all looking for Crabtree, some thinking there might be a reward offered for the capture of the criminal. The Rovers joined in the hunt for the best part of an hour, but without success.
"It's worse than looking for a pin in a haystack," grumbled Tom, presently. "We might as well give it up."
"Let us walk around the town and see if we can learn anything," suggested his big brother.
They walked down the main street of Plankville from end to 'end, questioning several people they knew. At last they got word that a mysterious automobile had passed through the town about midnight of the day Josiah Crabtree had broken from jail. But who had been in the touring car nobody could tell.
"He may have escaped in that," declared Dick.
"And if he did, that man who came to see him at the jail had the car," added Sam.
"Just what I think," cried Tom. "Well, if he got away in an auto there is no use of our looking for him here," he added, with a sigh.
Nevertheless, the boys hung around Plank-
