"Yes, I heard there was one showing around here," the man went on, "and I'd like to find it." "There was a circus over at Rosedale yesterday," spoke Bert, "but it has traveled on by this time. If you inquired there you could find out where it went." "I'll do that," the man said. "I'm much obliged to you," and he was about to drive on, when Bert asked: "Aren't you Mr. Mason, who has a lumber yard near my father's?" "Whoa!" called the man to his horse. "Yes, I'm Mr. Mason," he went on, "and I have a lumber yard. But I don't seem to know you." "I'm Bert Bobbsey," the lad said, "and my father--" "Oh, yes, to be sure! Of course I know you!" the man exclaimed. "Why, you were the boy in the automobile the day my ward, Frank Kennedy, ran away from me." "Yes, I was there," said Bert. "Well, it's about Frank that I came on here," said Mr. Mason. "I have been tracing him. I heard he joined a circus when he ran away from me, and I want to find him and take him back. I came on here by train, and hired this horse and carriage to drive about the country. But now, when I am almost up to the circus, you tell me it has moved. That's too bad, and I'm not sure, when I find it, that Frank will be with it." "I think he will be, Mr. Mason," said Bert, quietly. "What's that?" cried Mr. Mason. "You think Frank will be with the circus? What makes you think so?" "Because we saw him with it yesterday," said Nan, taking part in the talk, "and he said he was going to travel with it." "Yes, that's right," agreed Bert. He thought it only fair to give information about Frank, since Mrs. Bobbsey had said she thought it would be best for the runaway boy to go back to his guardian. "Hum!" exclaimed Mr. Mason. "If Frank is with the circus, I'll soon get him. I'll drive over to Rosedale, and inquire where the show went from there. I can easily trace it. Much obliged to you for your information," he called over his shoulder, as he drove off. He did not stop to inquire how Frank was, nor how he had fared since running away. Perhaps Mr. Mason did not think of this. "Oh, I hope he--I hope he doesn't shake Frank, when he finds him," said Nan, as the lumber man drove on. "I don't believe he will," remarked Bert. "I fancy Frank will make his guardian promise to treat him better if he goes back to the lumber office." Nan and Bert went in the house to tell their mother of meeting the man who was looking for Frank. She said they had done right to tell what they knew. "Poor boy," she sighed, "he hasn't had a very happy life, but perhaps this will be all for the good, and he may be better treated now." That afternoon, as Harry and the Bobbsey children, with Tom Mason and Mabel Herold were going down the road to pick some blackberries, they met a farmer boy driving an empty hay wagon. This boy knew Bert, Harry and Tom. "Hello!" he called to them, "did you hear the news about the circus?"