Sure enough that was the destination of the two young men. Ned was as close after them as he dared to go. There was little risk of his being noticed while he was on the streets, but, after leaving them there was greater danger of detection for the trailer.
“However,” argued Ned, “as long as I know where they are going, I don’t need to keep so close after them. I can wait until they get to the mill, and then I can go there too. By coming up from the back, where there are no windows, which I can do by going through Hedges’s Lane, they can’t see me.”
He approached the mill rapidly from the rear. As he came within hearing distance he could distinguish voices. And they seemed to be disputing. The ancient establishment was full of cracks and broken places, and the noise from inside passed out freely. Nearer and nearer hurried Ned. At last he reached the broad platform that ran all around the base of the mill. He proceeded cautiously, taking care not to step in the big holes that yawned here and there. He crept around to a place near the front entrance to the old structure. Fortunately here he found where a board had come loose, so that it afforded a good listening place.
“I don’t see what in the world you wanted to bring me all the way out to this lonely place for, my dear chap,” Paul was saying.
“It’s this way,” Noddy was explaining. “I told you I was short of cash, and had to ask you to wait until to-day to pay the bet I made with you.”
“But, my dear fellow,” “Polly” expostulated, “why couldn’t you pay me up there in town, just as well?”
“To tell you the truth,” said Noddy, in a tone that would indicate to any one who knew him that he was going to do just the opposite, “I didn’t want any one to see me paying you.”
“And why not, pray, my dear chap?”
“Because I owe quite a few bets,” replied Noddy. “I am going to square them all up in a day or so, but if those I owe saw me paying you they would all come down on me at once and I would be financially embarrassed. I suppose you’re ready to take the money now?”
“Ready, nay, anxious, my dear chap.”