“Don’t ask me. Ask the Boss,” she replied.
“Who is the boss?”
A chuckle came from the other side of the door. “Soon you’ll find out. He’ll be in to see you before very long.”
Seeing that a display of temper would get him nowhere Don gave up his attempt to break the door and fell to examining the room with care. The windows had been boarded on the inside, and he gave up any thought of trying to pry loose any of the boards without the necessary tools. There was only one door in the room beside the one he had entered by, and he soon found that this door was as firmly locked as the other one. The walls, cold and wet to his touch, gave him no hope, for they were firm enough. Finally, he gave it all up in disgust.
“Nothing doing anyway,” he muttered. “I wonder what the heck the game is?”
He did not have long to wonder. Fifteen minutes after he had entered the room he heard a key rattle in the lock on the opposite door. Evidently the lock was quite rusted, for it took a few minutes for the other to unlock it, but at length the task was completed, and the door opened.
Two men entered the room, and at sight of them Don felt a shock of recognition. One of them was the stocky individual who had offered to buy their boat the day before, and the other was the smaller man who had been called Frank. Both of them were smoking cigars and seemed pleased with something.
“How do you do, young man?” nodded the older of the two.
“What is the idea of locking me in here?” Don demanded.
The man called Frank laughed and turned to the other. “He’s a very inquiring sort of a kid, isn’t he, Benito?”