“And did you capture Jones?” demanded Mabel.
“Yes; but he got away again.”
“And Jimmy?” asked Shirley eagerly. “Is he safe?”
“Yes. He’s around here some place looking for you.”
“Then,” said Mabel, slowly, “it must have been you we saw on the shore just as we escaped.”
“It must have been,” replied Leonard. “I thought I saw a dark shape going up the creek, but I wasn’t sure, so I said nothing about it.”
“And where did you get the other launch? We saw nothing of it when we left.”
“We found it a mile down stream, about where we left it when we recaptured the Sybil.”
“So that’s the way it was,” said Shirley, half to herself. “Had we only met you after we escaped we all would have been saved a lot of worry.”
“But why didn’t you stop when I hailed you in the creek?” asked Leonard, fatigue and anxiety beginning to tell on his nerves.