The driver laughed boisterously. "Plenty more where this comes from. Eh, Hank?"

"You bet! My roll makes his look like a flat tire! Just feast your eyes on this!" He flashed an even larger roll of bills in the amazed attendant's face.

The filling-station man shrugged. "I'll have to go inside to get. your change."

The moment he had disappeared, the third man in the car muttered to his companions, "You fools! Do you want to make him suspicious? Pipe down!" He spoke in a low tone but the wind carried his voice in Nancy's direction.

"Maurice is right," the driver admitted. "The fellow is only a cornball, but we can't be too careful."

The attendant returned with the change. The driver pocketed it and drove off without another word. Nancy instinctively noted the license number of the car. On impulse she went to a phone booth and dialed her friend Chief McGinnis of the River Heights Police Department.

"I'll ask him to let me know who owns both the sedan and the foreign-make car that slowed down at George's house," she determined. "Then I'll find out about the driver, the woman wearing the Blue Jade, the men named Maurice and Hank, and maybe the man in Room 305!"

CHAPTER VIA Worrisome Journey

"Some class, eh?" the attendant remarked to Nancy as she came back to her car. "Must be millionaires."

"Or racketeers," Nancy thought. As soon as her gas tank was filled, she paid the bill and hurried back into the lunchroom. The girls already had been served.

"What took you so long?" Bess asked.

"Another car drove up and I had to wait," Nancy answered simply. She sat down, thoughtfully eating her sundae.

"What's the matter with you?" George demanded presently. "You've hardly said a word since you sat down."

Nancy looked around and saw that no one was seated near their table. In whispers she told what had happened.