Page:Boys of Columbia High on the River.djvu/164

152 "That don't skeer us at all, boy. Me and my pard we just wanter know where you put that boodle you got from us? Tell us how we can lay our grip on that again, and we'll be glad to let you loose," replied Martin.

Frank was worried. Could it be possible they expected that he had taken all that stolen stuff to his own home, to have his father keep it until the same was claimed by the storekeeper up at Fordham?

"Why, didn't you know that the police took charge of that jewelry, to hold it until the man proved property? That's the truth, every word of it. You can't mean to say you dreamed I had it all this while? Why, that's silly," he remarked.

"Is it? Well, perhaps it might be better for you if you had kept your fingers on the stuff, then," remarked Martin, significantly.

Frank relapsed into silence. He wanted to think over the situation and see if he could form any plan that offered a solution to the puzzle of how he was going to get away from this dangerous couple.

All this while they had been going deeper into the big woods, which stretched off toward the south-west for a good two miles. The men walked as though they had some idea of where they were going. From this Frank judged that they had found some sort of hiding-place back here.