Nancy shook her head doubtfully.
“Doesn’t the lefthand road lead to Garwin?” The marshal nodded.
“Then it strikes me the robbers would have taken that road. It seems reasonable that they would head for a large city where they could dispose of the stolen goods.”
“Maybe you’re right,” the marshal admitted reluctantly.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” Nancy proposed, as she had an inspiration. “You take the righthand road and I’ll head for Garwin.”
“And if you should overtake those rascals, what would you do?” the marshal demanded in some amusement. “You couldn’t expect to stop them single-handed.”
“I wouldn’t try. I’d race back and give the alarm. Hurry! Every minute that we delay gives them just that greater advantage!”
Without waiting until the marshal had returned to his automobile, Nancy Drew backed her car and headed down the lefthand road. The highway was smooth, and as there was a clear stretch ahead, she drove rapidly. She realized that already the robbers had a big start, and that if once they reached Garwin she could not hope to overtake them.
“I’m sure I’m on the right trail,” she told herself. “That other road doesn’t lead anywhere in particular.”
After she had traveled several miles, Nancy became less confident. Although she had passed a number of side roads, she had kept to the main highway, and she realized that it would have been easy for the moving van to elude pursuit by taking any one of the branches.
“Still, the robbers can’t know that they are being followed,” she reasoned. “It’s likely they’ll be off their guard.”