“All right, then, I’ll be waiting for you,” said 180 Larry, with a wave of his hand. “I only wish that I could help you, but I’m a lame horse yet. Good luck, anyway.”
The radio boys set out at top speed, each one hunting high and low along the street assigned to him, and asking questions of every one he met. But the strangers seemed to have vanished into thin air, for, hunt as they would, the boys could find no trace of them. At the railroad station they learned that a train had left for New York only a few minutes before, but the ticket agent said he did not remember selling tickets to any men such as the boys described.
“That doesn’t prove anything, though,” he said, as he noted their disappointment. “I sell so many tickets here during the day that I don’t notice who buys them much. The only time I’d be likely to notice anything would be if the parties were excited or nervous, and I don’t remember anything like that this afternoon.”
The boys thanked him, and left the station.
“That’s too bad,” said Bob. “I would have given a lot to have caught those fellows for Larry. People that are mean and selfish enough to upset a boat and then not even try to rescue the people in it, ought to get what’s coming to them.”
“I’d certainly have enjoyed taking a swift punch or two at them myself,” agreed Joe.
“Well, if we didn’t catch them, it wasn’t for 181 lack of trying,” said Herb. “People looked at me as though they thought I was crazy when I asked them questions about the fellows we were after. I didn’t even know enough about them to describe them.”
“My idea was that they’d probably keep on running even after they’d gotten away from Larry, and in that case somebody would have been sure to notice them,” explained Bob. “It looks as though they were wise enough to slow down as soon as they thought they were safely away, though.”
“No use crying over spilt milk,” said Jimmy philosophically. “Let’s go back to Larry and report ‘nothing doing.’”
“I suppose that’s about all we can do,” agreed Bob. “We’ll keep a sharp lookout on the way back, and we may find something, after all.”