"How can you offer any money? You haven't got it with you, have you?"
"No. But I could get the money, and what I promised to pay I would pay."
"But several hundred dollars wouldn't be enough."
"If you helped to bring the Baxters to justice we might make it a thousand dollars," put in Tom, who was now as anxious as Dick to bring the captain to terms.
At the mention of a thousand dollars the eyes of Captain Langless glistened. The sum was not large, but it was sufficient to interest him. He had already received three hundred dollars from Arnold Baxter, as a guarantee of good faith, so to speak, but there was no telling how much more he could expect from that individual. If he could obtain thirteen hundred dollars all told, and get out of the affair on the safe side, he might be doing well.
"How would you pay this thousand dollars?" he asked.
"Our father would pay it. He is a fairly rich man, and anxious to see
Arnold Baxter returned to prison."
"To get the man out of his path?"
"Partly that, and partly to see justice done. Come, what do you say?"
Before the captain could answer there came a call down the companion way.