noon
Some twenty minutes later they were headed in a big seven-seating automobile toward the scene of the boys ' early morning adventure . On the front seat with the chauffeur sat Chief Carey and in the tonneau were Clint and Amy and two policemen , one of them the officer who had taken them to the station . At their feet were two brand-new spades . It was a fine , clear morning and promised to be quite warm by noon . But Clint and Amy snuggled down into the seat and presented as small a portion of their anatomies as was possible to the fresh morning breeze that rushed by them . They passed the first sign-post and the second and the first farm they had seen , but after that the road was quite unfamiliar since they had travelled over it in the dark . The car whisked along at an even thirty-mile speed until , shortly after the farm-house was passed , Clint suggested that as neither he nor Amy were certain as to the location of the hut the car proceed more slowly .