"Wouldn't it be a good plan to notify the police?" he said.
"He told me to do that," replied the man. "I stopped in at the station on the way up, and a patrol-wagon full of cops has started. We'll have to go fast to catch them."
Herc searched his pockets. But, as luck would have it, he could not find more than a few bits of silver. But the boys on their arrival had deposited in the hotel safe the money entrusted to them to pay their expenses, and also to defray the charges on the freighted goods. Herc recollected this, and thinking that it might be a good plan to have some money along, he withdrew a considerable part of their funds. Had he caught the glitter in the man's eyes, he would have been warned.
"Now, I'm ready," he said, as he thrust the money into his breast pocket.
"All right, guv'ner," was the response, "the carriage is right outside."
Herc, following his conductor, soon found himself inside a closed hack drawn by two horses. The messenger said something to the coachman and then threw himself in beside Herc. The carriage at once moved off at a rapid pace. Bartonville was not a very large place, and the town and its scattering outskirts were speedily left behind. The carriage began to roll and bump along over country roads.
"How far off is the place?" Herc kept asking, and each time he was assured that it was "only a little way further."
At last the carriage stopped on a deserted bit of roadway.
"Here's where we get out," said Herc's conductor, "we'll have to hike it across that field and through that bit of woods before we get to your pal."
Herc paid the coachman and the man at once drove off.
"This way," said the man, climbing over a rail fence and striking off across a field, on the further side of which was a patch of ragged woods. Through the trees Herc could catch the glint of water.
It was a lonely spot. He looked about him, but could not see any trace of a human habitation.
"If this should be a trap I'm nicely in it, all right," he muttered to himself as he followed his guide into the shadows of the wood.
"How much further?" he asked, as they stumbled along over the rough path.
"Right ahead down by the creek," said the man. "We're almost there now."
With a few paces more they emerged on the banks of a slow-flowing and muddy creek, which was evidently tidal and joined the Bartonville Bay lower down. About a hundred yards off stood a rickety looking shack, and anchored in the creek opposite to it was a sloop with a red band painted round its bulwarks. Suddenly and for no reason that he could assign, the recollection flashed across Herc that he had heard Ned speak of such a sloop. At the time though he could not recall in what connection.