The agitation of Eliot Dodge was also quite apparent. Merry had already marked Dodge down as a coward.
When the two men passed into the back room Frank longed to follow them. He sat there, wondering what course to pursue.
That June Arlington was somewhere in Sunk Hole[Pg 299] he now felt certain. The talk of the two men who had been seated near him was assurance enough on that point.
But where was she? How was he to find and rescue her? This task he now understood as the most important one before him and the one to which he was to give his attention at once, regardless of the capture of Bill, which could be accomplished later.
As he sat there, thinking the affair over and seeking to decide on some course to pursue, he was surprised and pleased to distinctly hear Bill speaking in the room beyond the board partition. These boards were thin and badly matched, so that there were large cracks at intervals. One of these cracks happened to be just behind Frank's head. By shifting his position slightly, he brought his ear close to the crack.
The fiddler was tuning up, and the rough men and women were laughing as they formed on the floor for the next dance.
Frank was able to concentrate his mind on anything he chose, at the same time becoming quite oblivious to everything else; and now he shut out the sounds of the room in which he sat and listened with all his ability to hear what passed beyond the partition.
"Sure, partner," Bill's voice was saying, "it surprises me a whole lot to see you come pokin' in here. However did you git here?"
"Terry came with me all the way. You said he would bring word to you from me, but I could not wait. I wanted to have a talk with you face to face,[Pg 300] without trusting to any middle man. I felt that I must do it, and that's what brought me here for one thing."
"Waal, here you are, and now open up. I'm ready to listen to anything whatever you has to say."