North stared at him, as if wondering how a trip in his boat would advance the work definitely, but the detective had no intention of telling him about the kidnapper’s letter and, too, Wise wanted to view the whole headland from the ocean.
The result was that the two started off at once, and going first to North’s bungalow to get his keys, and also his man who helped run the boat, inside of an hour Pennington Wise found himself out on the ocean with North, and Joe Mills, who, though taciturn and even grumpy, was a good navigator.
“Remarkable cliff!” Wise exclaimed, amazed at its effect from below.
“It’s all of that!” North said; “most wonderful cliff on the whole Maine coast, they say. Notice the overhang, and then tell me if any one could climb it!”
“No human being could!” Wise declared. “And I can think of no animal,—unless a spider. Go clear round to the other side, will you?”
North gave orders and Mills drove them round the great headland, and on all sides it was as massive and forbidding as the first view.
“High tide, isn’t it?” asked Wise, as they went on beyond the headland, and then turned back again.
“Yes,” said North, glancing at the rocky base. “Almost top notch.”
“Rise high?”
“Very. Twenty feet at least.”