He was not yet wholly recovered from the shock he had received from being thrown against a telegraph pole some days before, and he would much rather have remained at home than venture out into the chill air of night. He had a duty in the premises, however.
This was the first word he had heard from Silas Keene since he left his home to meet the notorious tramp, Perry Jounce, in Billy Bowleg's saloon.
August thought of the first note he had received—a warning to be constantly on his guard, and found himself wondering who wrote it. Not the detective, for in this note was a statement that Keene had been stricken down. And this bore out the statement of the last letter. It seemed evident that a terrible accident had happened to the detective, or else he had been criminally assaulted. In either case it seemed evident to the young man his duty to visit Keene if possible.
"What had I best do, mother?" finally questioned the young man.
Before asking the question August had fully determined upon his course, but he was anxious to have his mother's approval as well.
"Go, by all meant, August."
"That was my determination," assured the engineer.
She was wholly unsuspicious, and had no thought that her son might go to his own doom.
Why should she feel suspicious? Who would care to harm her son, who, she fully believed, had never injured a human soul?
August had suspicions, however, and he secured a revolver upon his person ere venturing out upon his mission.