“Ye may do so foriver, so long as I have such quarters as these.”
With this understanding, the friends parted, no one dreaming of what was to befall them before all met again.
CHAPTER XXII
A Startling Discovery
Nothing was more natural than that Alvin Landon and Chester Haynes should be concerned for the safety of the motor launch Deerfoot. It had been stolen from them once in simple wantonness by two young men who had nothing to do with the post office robberies. The motive for a similar theft was now much stronger. It was evident that the criminals had come to Beartown, or as near to it as they could come, by water, and their boat was somewhere in the neighborhood. They were likely to discover the Deerfoot, if they had not already done so, and knowing its superior speed, would either make use of or disable it so it could not be employed for pursuit.
Alvin and Chester kept to the road which connected the landing with the village, for it was much easier thus to advance than to pick their way through the pines and firs. They did not meet a solitary person, for the night was well along and daybreak near. When the rickety frame work loomed up in the moonlight, they turned off into the shadow of the wood and moved with the utmost care. All the time they kept within sight of the gleam of water. Alvin was in advance, with his comrade close upon his heels.
“Hello! here she is!” was the pleased exclamation of the Captain a few minutes later.
“Has she had any visitors while we were away?” asked Chester, as the two stepped down to the margin of the river.