"Why, I seen him to-day myself in Castalia!" cried Thomas. "He's up there hirin' men to ship with him. Said he was goin' to stay all night. I know the very house he's in."
"Do you think I could get there to-night?"
"You might." Jimmie looked at his watch. "The Seal Cove mail-wagon's gone long ago, but I'll take you down in my motor-dory if you'll come right now."
Templeton did not even wait to finish his supper, but went out with Thomas immediately. A few minutes' walk brought them to the little beach where the dory was drawn up and they were soon on their way. But before they left, Templeton scribbled a message on a piece of paper and left it with Mrs. Shannon to be given to Nat Burns, who, he said, was to call for him at half-past seven.
Thomas kept the nose of his dory pointed to the lights of several houses that gleamed across the bay. They were not, however, the lights of Castalia, which were almost invisible farther south. But Templeton, who had never been on Grande Mignon before, sat blissfully ignorant of this circumstance.
Later, however, he remembered that his accommodating guide had chuckled inexplicably during most of the trip.
Twenty minutes' ride in the chill night air brought them to a long, low pier that extended out into the black water. Above on the hillside the windows of the big fishing settlement on Long Island gleamed comfortable and yellow.
Thomas ran his dory close to the landing-stage and then reversed the engine so that at the time most convenient for Templeton to step off the boat had lost all motion. The lawyer landed, but Jimmie did not shut off his engine. Instead he turned it on full speed and backed away from the dock.
"Hey, you, where are you going?" called Templeton, vaguely alarmed for the first time.
"Back to the village," answered Thomas, sending his motor into the forward speed. "I got something very important to do there."
"But in which house is Schofield?" cried the other. "You said you would show me."
There was no reply, and it is possible that, due to the noise of the engine, Thomas had not heard the protest at all.
Nat Burns arrived at Shannon's boarding-house slightly in advance of the time named, and read Templeton's note saying that he had gone to Castalia to nab Code while he had the chance.