“You forget Dan,” said Bob. “He’s sure to have a lot of tin on him.”
“That’s right. And look here!” Nelson stopped and looked back toward the railroad station. “What time is it, Bob?”
“Then one of us ought to go back to the station and meet Dan. If he goes down there and finds the launch gone there’s no knowing where he will wander to. Will you go down and wait for him, Tommy? Tell him what’s up and hold him at the station until we get back.”
“All right,” answered Tom. “And we might be making inquiries about a launch, eh?”
“Yes, but be back on the platform by eleven.”
Tom retraced his steps to the station, leaving the others to go on in search of the police officials. He passed a fruit and candy store on the way and was sorely tempted to buy some of the latter, but he told himself resolutely that what money he had ought to be expended toward recovering the _Vagabond_ and so fought off the temptation. The _Mayflower Limited_ rolled in on time to the minute and Tom watched the steps of the long line of parlor cars in expectation of seeing Dan descend. But no Dan appeared. After making certain of this fact Tom went into the station and studied the time-table.
“Now he can’t get here until a quarter to one,” he said disgustedly. “And we need his money like anything! I dare say he didn’t want to pay the extra fare on the Limited, the stingy beggar!”
He went down to the wharf to make sure that Dan had not somehow managed to get off of the train on the other side and gone to look for the _Vagabond_. But the wharf was empty, and so Tom set out on the search for a launch to rent.
Twenty minutes later the three met again on the station platform, all more cheerful for having accomplished something. Bob reported smilingly that the wheels of justice were in motion and that already the local sleuths were on the trail. Nelson had sent telephone messages up and down the Sound and over to Long Island. Tom had found the very thing they wanted in the way of a launch.
“She’s a little bit of a thing, only eighteen feet long,” he explained, “but she can go like anything. And we can hire her for six dollars a day. I tried to make him take five, but he wouldn’t. She’s right up here at a wharf. Come on and look at her.”