“I have half a mind to take matters in my own hands and run down to Jacksonville,” went on our hero. “Who knows but what I might find Merwell and Jasniff? If I did, I could stop them and make them give an account of themselves by making that old charge of abduction against them, and that charge of having used my name.”
“Say, that’s an idea!” cried Roger. “And say, I’d like to go with you.”
“So would I,” added Phil. “We might go down in one of my father’s ships.”
“Too slow, Phil—the limited express for this trip,” answered Dave. “But I must talk it over with dad first,” he added.
“We have got over three weeks before school opens again,” pursued the senator’s son. “We could go down to Florida and back easily in that time.”
Dave’s father had gone to New York on business, but came home that evening. In the meantime a telegram was sent to Luke Watson, asking for the name of the hotel, at which Merwell and Jasniff had stopped, and of the schooner.
Dave’s father and his uncle listened closely to what he had to tell, and to the reading of the letter from Luke Watson. They talked the affair over for an hour with the boys.
“You may be right, boys,” said Mr. Porter, at last. “And it may be a good plan to follow those rascals up. But I don’t think I would bother Mr. Wadsworth about it. He received a telegram from one of the detectives, and the officer is more sure than ever that he is on the right track. He caught Red Andrews pawning a fair-sized diamond, and he thinks the gem is from the Carwith collection.”
“Can’t he make Red Andrews confess?” asked Dave.
“Unfortunately the rascal got away when on the way to the police-station. But the detective feels he can soon round him up again.”