“Well, what do you know about that!” cried Roger.
“No wonder Nick Jasniff wanted to leave the vicinity of the construction camp,” remarked Dave. “He must have reasoned that sooner or later we would learn that he hadn’t been pardoned and was wanted at the prison.”
“That must be it,” answered the senator’s son.
“If this Nick Jasniff is interested in the affair, we want to know it,” said Mr. Wadsworth. “I shall at once give the authorities the particulars of Jasniff’s doings, so that they can go on the hunt for him. They have his picture in the Rogues’ Gallery, and that can be copied and circulated, so that the authorities in different cities, and especially in this vicinity, can be on the lookout for him.”
“But why weren’t the authorities on the lookout for him before?” questioned our hero.
“They were at first. But then they got word that Jasniff had sailed for some port in South America, so they gave it up. Evidently the report was a false one.”
“Yes, and probably circulated by Nick Jasniff himself,” added Roger.
“Of course you have been over to Coburntown, where the gypsies went after they left here,” remarked Dave.
“We have been all around that territory,” answered his Uncle Dunston. “The gypsies have disappeared entirely, one report stating that they were bound south. I had them stopped at a town about fifty miles away, and those in the camp were closely questioned. They said that Mother Domoza had been left behind on account of sickness, and that two gypsies, one named Tony Bopeppo, and the other Carlos Vazala, had remained with her to take care of her. They said the three were to go to another gypsy camp some twenty or thirty miles away. But at that camp it was said that they knew nothing about the old hag and her followers.”
“Were the two gypsies, Bopeppo and Vazala, the two with whom you had trouble about the land?” questioned Roger.