Page:Dick Hamilton's Steam Yacht.djvu/85

Rh shook his fist at the craft containing the four men. Then he filled his pipe, and began to smoke more calmly.

"We could chase them in the motorboat," suggested Dick, hardly yet understanding what it was all about.

"What's the use? Shrouder is as slippery as a greased sheet in a hail storm. Let him go—he won't sleep any the easier to-night from having met me. But I wnsh I could have laid my hooks on him," and Widdy opened and shut his gnarled hands suggestively.

"But I don't understand," said the lad. "Where is Mr. Blake? Why should those fellows disappear so suddenly? I was to meet the lawyer here, and look over this boat"

"Mr. Blake never came here," said Widdy, bluntly. "It's a plant—a game—to get you on board. I'll wager that note sent to your hotel was forged."

"But why should they want to get me here?"

"To rob you, most likely. They know you're rich."

"Then that must have been why those two men paid such close attention to me," decided Dick.

"Of course," agreed the old sailor. "As soon as I clapped eyes on Jake Shrouder I knew there was something crooked afoot. I've known him for years—sailed all over in ships with him—and I never knew a piece of black business afoot anywhere near him that he didn't have his finger in.