No one seemed to be able to think of a better scheme and Roberts finally agreed to it grudgingly. “Let’s be going,” he said. “Unless I miss my guess we’ll have both those would-be detectives bagged before to-morrow night and there will not be any need of anybody hiding in the swamp.”
Qualley arose energetically and stretched himself. “I hope you are right and I don’t see why you shouldn’t be. Joe, you go up and tell Mike to stay on the job there watching that canal until he gets further orders. If they get by him it may mean several years in the pen for him, so he better look sharp. The rest of us will take the short cut across the swamp to the neck and you can join us there as soon as you can make it. The four of us ought to be able to cover that swamp so that a rabbit could not get through.”
They moved slowly away toward the track and Scott chuckled when he heard Roberts call to Joe, “Stop at the camp on your way over and bring me a gun. Those scoundrels stole mine.”
CHAPTER XIV
Scott waited till they had disappeared in the fog and then followed cautiously. Suddenly an idea came to him that made the cold chills run up his back. What if they should go over past Murphy and Murphy should mistake them for him? If they would just keep on talking it might be all right, but if they walked in silence Murphy would be almost certain to hail them.
He crept up as close behind them as he dared so that if the worst came he would be there to help Murphy. For the second time in his life he sorely regretted that he did not have a gun. If there was trouble, Murphy would probably be shot before he could get near enough to do anything. If he had only taken Murphy’s advice and his pistol he could at least cause a diversion even if he could not hit anything.
Joe had turned off to follow the track to the camp but the rest of them went steadily on down the beach directly toward Murphy. They had apparently exhausted their ideas in the talk around the camp fire for they had fallen silent now, just what Scott had dreaded. He thought they must be pretty close to Murphy now and he expected every instant to hear his voice. If they would only say something. A sudden inspiration came to him and he deliberately kicked a tree he was passing and stopped behind it. He was listening breathlessly.
“What was that?” Qualley asked in a quiet voice. “Did you hear anything?”
There was a pause and then Roberts answered, “Yes, I heard it. Must have been a pine cone dropping or those cowards out there on the schooner locking their back door.”
Scott heaved a sigh of relief. Certainly Murphy must have heard that if he was not asleep. It was not likely that a man would go to sleep under those circumstances, but the idea worried Scott and he knew that he could not feel comfortable again till he had joined Murphy and put him wise to the situation. It had never occurred to him before he left Murphy that there might be some one else wandering around there and they had not arranged any signals for recognition.