At these plain words the face of Captain Rodney became a study.
"They told me he was a crazy man—a brother to one of the others—and they wanted to get him to some sanitarium."
"If that was so, why did they run away?"
"I didn't know they ran away—until just now."
"You started to go down the river," said Tom.
"Why did you change your mind and come here?"
"They chartered the schooner for a week—I was under their orders."
"Where were they going at first?"
"Down the Jersey coast and back. They said they thought a little ocean air would do the crazy man good before they put him in the sanitarium. I own up that I was suspicious, but they claimed everything was straight."
"They were going to take my father down the coast for several days so that he could not sign important papers," returned Dick. "It is a well-laid plot to do our family out of a great deal of money and dishonor my father."