"I guess you are after him," said the purser, grimly.
"We certainly are!" answered Tom.
It was an easy matter to locate stateroom Number 148, which was on the main deck forward. The entrance was in a narrow passageway, and close at hand was a door opening on a narrow walkway between the staterooms and the ship's rail.
"Wait a moment," whispered the detective, and stepped outside. He was now close to a shuttered window of the stateroom engaged by Jesse Pelter.
From the room came a murmur of voices, and without speaking further the detective motioned for the Rover boys to join him beside the window. Although the slatted shutter was up, evidently the glass of the window had been let down its full length, for those outside could hear what was said within with ease.
"That proposition is all right as far as it goes," they heard, in Jesse Pelter's voice. "But I can't see, Haywood, where you ought to have fifty per cent. of the returns."
"I do!" answered somebody else—evidently the man called Haywood. "I'm running all the risk, it seems to me."
"Not so very much of a risk," went on Jesse Pelter. "Sixty thousand dollars' worth of those bonds are unregistered."
"All very true. But for all you know the numbers may be advertised as stolen. If so, I may get pinched when I offer them."
"Not if you are careful and work the thing in the right kind of a way," pursued the former broker.