“Where is he?” asked Fenn in a whisper.
“Don’t look now,” replied Frank, making a pretense of pointing out the window at a bit of scenery. “He’s staring right at us. It’s the man with the light hat, with a white ribbon band on, whom I mean. You can size him up as soon as he turns his head.”
The boys cautiously waited for an opportunity, and took a quick inspection of the man Frank had indicated. He was a total stranger to the four Darewell lads, as far as any of them knew, but it did not take long to disclose the fact that the man was much interested in them.
He watched their every move, and, when any one of them spoke, the fellow tried to catch what was said. The man seemed like an ordinary traveler, and, except for a peculiar cast in one eye, was not bad looking.
“Let’s change our seats,” suggested Fenn, when the train had proceeded some miles farther, and the car was not so full. “We want to talk, and we can’t be whispering all the while.”
They moved farther away from the man with the cast in his eye, and were once more discussing their plans, when Frank again noticed that the man was listening. He, too, had moved up several seats, and, under pretense of reading a paper, was straining his ears for whatever the boys said.
“Let’s go into the other car,” proposed Fenn. “If he follows us there we’ll tell the conductor.”
But the man evidently did not care to run any more risks and the boys were not further annoyed.
“I wonder who he was?” asked Ned. “Perhaps he had something to do with the smugglers.”
“Oh, I guess he was just some fellow more interested in the business of other persons than in his own,” replied Frank. “I hope we didn’t talk too much, so that he’ll know what we are going to do.”